$100 in 1978 is worth $222 in 1993,
because prices increased 121.6% over that period, an average of
5.45% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$222
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
121.6%
Average inflation rate
5.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$222
Price difference ($100 base)
$122
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1978 → 1993
$222
$100 in 1993 → 1978
$45.12
What happened to prices between 1978 and 1993
Between 1978 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 121.6%, which works out to an average of
5.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1993: the 1978 dollar
lost 54.9% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 1993 at the same ratio, 2.22: $1,000 becomes
$2,216, and $10,000 becomes $22,163.
Amount in 1978
Value in 1993
$1.00
$2.22
$5.00
$11.08
$10.00
$22.16
$20.00
$44.33
$50.00
$111
$100
$222
$500
$1,108
$1,000
$2,216
$5,000
$11,081
$10,000
$22,163
$100,000
$221,626
$1,000,000
$2,216,258
Inflation by spending category, 1978–1993
Between 1978 and 1993, medical care rose the most, up 225.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 64.3%, against 121.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.45%
$222
Medical care
8.19%
$326
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.78%
$232
Housing
5.59%
$226
Transportation
5.12%
$211
Energy
4.68%
$198
Food
4.58%
$196
Apparel
3.36%
$164
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 1993
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.40% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$222
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $165 by
1985, on its way to $222 in 1993; 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 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $222; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 1993: $100 is worth $222 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1993/