$100 in 1978 is worth $209 in 1991,
because prices increased 108.9% over that period, an average of
5.83% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$209
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
108.9%
Average inflation rate
5.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$209
Price difference ($100 base)
$109
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1978 → 1991
$209
$100 in 1991 → 1978
$47.87
What happened to prices between 1978 and 1991
Between 1978 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 108.9%, which works out to an average of
5.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.48 buys in 1991: the 1978 dollar
lost 52.1% of its purchasing power over
these 13 years.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
Every 1978 amount converts to 1991 at the same ratio, 2.09: $1,000 becomes
$2,089, and $10,000 becomes $20,890.
Amount in 1978
Value in 1991
$1.00
$2.09
$5.00
$10.44
$10.00
$20.89
$20.00
$41.78
$50.00
$104
$100
$209
$500
$1,044
$1,000
$2,089
$5,000
$10,445
$10,000
$20,890
$100,000
$208,896
$1,000,000
$2,088,957
Inflation by spending category, 1978–1991
Between 1978 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 186.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 58.1%, against 108.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.83%
$209
Medical care
8.43%
$286
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.14%
$217
Housing
6.03%
$214
Transportation
5.50%
$201
Energy
5.28%
$195
Food
5.03%
$189
Apparel
3.59%
$158
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 1991
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (4.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–1991 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1978, at end
1978–1980
12.42%
26.4%
$126
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$200
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$209
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $159 by
1984, on its way to $209 in 1991; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 1.9% in 1986.
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $209; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 1991: $100 is worth $209 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1991/