$100 in 1978 is worth $246 in 1997,
because prices increased 146.2% over that period, an average of
4.86% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$246
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
146.2%
Average inflation rate
4.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$246
Price difference ($100 base)
$146
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1978 → 1997
$246
$100 in 1997 → 1978
$40.62
What happened to prices between 1978 and 1997
Between 1978 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 146.2%, which works out to an average of
4.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1997: the 1978 dollar
lost 59.4% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1997 at the same ratio, 2.46: $1,000 becomes
$2,462, and $10,000 becomes $24,617.
Amount in 1978
Value in 1997
$1.00
$2.46
$5.00
$12.31
$10.00
$24.62
$20.00
$49.23
$50.00
$123
$100
$246
$500
$1,231
$1,000
$2,462
$5,000
$12,308
$10,000
$24,617
$100,000
$246,166
$1,000,000
$2,461,656
Inflation by spending category, 1978–1997
Between 1978 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 279.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 63.3%, against 146.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.86%
$246
Medical care
7.27%
$380
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.13%
$259
Housing
4.97%
$251
Transportation
4.57%
$234
Food
4.20%
$218
Energy
4.04%
$212
Apparel
2.61%
$163
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 1997
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.98% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$246
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $174 by
1987, on its way to $246 in 1997; 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 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $246; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 1997: $100 is worth $246 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1997/