$100 in 1978 is worth $234 in 1995,
because prices increased 133.7% over that period, an average of
5.12% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$234
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
133.7%
Average inflation rate
5.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$234
Price difference ($100 base)
$134
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1978 → 1995
$234
$100 in 1995 → 1978
$42.78
What happened to prices between 1978 and 1995
Between 1978 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 133.7%, which works out to an average of
5.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.43 buys in 1995: the 1978 dollar
lost 57.2% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1995 at the same ratio, 2.34: $1,000 becomes
$2,337, and $10,000 becomes $23,374.
Amount in 1978
Value in 1995
$1.00
$2.34
$5.00
$11.69
$10.00
$23.37
$20.00
$46.75
$50.00
$117
$100
$234
$500
$1,169
$1,000
$2,337
$5,000
$11,687
$10,000
$23,374
$100,000
$233,742
$1,000,000
$2,337,423
Inflation by spending category, 1978–1995
Between 1978 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 256.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 62.2%, against 133.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.12%
$234
Medical care
7.77%
$357
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.44%
$246
Housing
5.23%
$238
Transportation
4.90%
$225
Food
4.35%
$206
Energy
4.17%
$200
Apparel
2.88%
$162
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 1995
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.12% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$234
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $168 by
1986, on its way to $234 in 1995; 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 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $234; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 1995: $100 is worth $234 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1995/