$100 in 1978 is worth $272 in 2001,
because prices increased 171.6% over that period, an average of
4.44% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$272
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
171.6%
Average inflation rate
4.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$272
Price difference ($100 base)
$172
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1978 → 2001
$272
$100 in 2001 → 1978
$36.82
What happened to prices between 1978 and 2001
Between 1978 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 171.6%, which works out to an average of
4.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.37 buys in 2001: the 1978 dollar
lost 63.2% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 2001 at the same ratio, 2.72: $1,000 becomes
$2,716, and $10,000 becomes $27,163.
Amount in 1978
Value in 2001
$1.00
$2.72
$5.00
$13.58
$10.00
$27.16
$20.00
$54.33
$50.00
$136
$100
$272
$500
$1,358
$1,000
$2,716
$5,000
$13,581
$10,000
$27,163
$100,000
$271,626
$1,000,000
$2,716,258
Inflation by spending category, 1978–2001
Between 1978 and 2001, medical care rose the most, up 341.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 56.4%, against 171.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.44%
$272
Medical care
6.67%
$441
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.64%
$284
Housing
4.62%
$283
Transportation
4.07%
$250
Energy
4.00%
$246
Food
3.89%
$240
Apparel
1.96%
$156
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 2001
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 1978–2001 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$264
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$272
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $190 by
1989, on its way to $272 in 2001; 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 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $272; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 2001: $100 is worth $272 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2001/