$100 in 1978 is worth $256 in 1999,
because prices increased 155.5% over that period, an average of
4.57% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$256
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
155.5%
Average inflation rate
4.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$256
Price difference ($100 base)
$156
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1978 → 1999
$256
$100 in 1999 → 1978
$39.14
What happened to prices between 1978 and 1999
Between 1978 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 155.5%, which works out to an average of
4.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.39 buys in 1999: the 1978 dollar
lost 60.9% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1999 at the same ratio, 2.56: $1,000 becomes
$2,555, and $10,000 becomes $25,552.
Amount in 1978
Value in 1999
$1.00
$2.56
$5.00
$12.78
$10.00
$25.55
$20.00
$51.10
$50.00
$128
$100
$256
$500
$1,278
$1,000
$2,555
$5,000
$12,776
$10,000
$25,552
$100,000
$255,521
$1,000,000
$2,555,215
Inflation by spending category, 1978–1999
Between 1978 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 305.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 61.3%, against 155.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.57%
$256
Medical care
6.89%
$406
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.85%
$270
Housing
4.71%
$263
Transportation
4.13%
$234
Food
4.00%
$228
Energy
3.43%
$203
Apparel
2.30%
$161
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 1999
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 1990s (2.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$256
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $181 by
1988, on its way to $256 in 1999; 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 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $256; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 1999: $100 is worth $256 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-1999/