$100 in 1978 is worth $250 in 1998,
because prices increased 150.0% over that period, an average of
4.69% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$250
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
150.0%
Average inflation rate
4.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$250
Price difference ($100 base)
$150
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1978 → 1998
$250
$100 in 1998 → 1978
$40.00
What happened to prices between 1978 and 1998
Between 1978 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 150.0%, which works out to an average of
4.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.40 buys in 1998: the 1978 dollar
lost 60.0% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1998 at the same ratio, 2.50: $1,000 becomes
$2,500, and $10,000 becomes $25,000.
Amount in 1978
Value in 1998
$1.00
$2.50
$5.00
$12.50
$10.00
$25.00
$20.00
$50.00
$50.00
$125
$100
$250
$500
$1,250
$1,000
$2,500
$5,000
$12,500
$10,000
$25,000
$100,000
$250,000
$1,000,000
$2,500,000
Inflation by spending category, 1978–1998
Between 1978 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 291.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 63.4%, against 150.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.69%
$250
Medical care
7.07%
$392
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.99%
$265
Housing
4.83%
$257
Transportation
4.24%
$229
Food
4.10%
$223
Energy
3.42%
$196
Apparel
2.49%
$163
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 1998
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.80% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$250
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $181 by
1988, on its way to $250 in 1998; 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 1.6% in 1998.
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $250; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 1998: $100 is worth $250 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1998/