$100 in 1978 is worth $241 in 1996,
because prices increased 140.6% over that period, an average of
5.00% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$241
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
140.6%
Average inflation rate
5.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$241
Price difference ($100 base)
$141
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1978 → 1996
$241
$100 in 1996 → 1978
$41.56
What happened to prices between 1978 and 1996
Between 1978 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 140.6%, which works out to an average of
5.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1996: the 1978 dollar
lost 58.4% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1996 at the same ratio, 2.41: $1,000 becomes
$2,406, and $10,000 becomes $24,064.
Amount in 1978
Value in 1996
$1.00
$2.41
$5.00
$12.03
$10.00
$24.06
$20.00
$48.13
$50.00
$120
$100
$241
$500
$1,203
$1,000
$2,406
$5,000
$12,032
$10,000
$24,064
$100,000
$240,644
$1,000,000
$2,406,442
Inflation by spending category, 1978–1996
Between 1978 and 1996, medical care rose the most, up 269.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 61.8%, against 140.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.00%
$241
Medical care
7.53%
$369
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.29%
$253
Housing
5.10%
$245
Transportation
4.78%
$232
Food
4.29%
$213
Energy
4.20%
$210
Apparel
2.71%
$162
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 1996
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (3.09% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$241
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $174 by
1987, on its way to $241 in 1996; 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 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $241; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 1996: $100 is worth $241 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1996/