$100 in 1978 is worth $276 in 2002,
because prices increased 175.9% over that period, an average of
4.32% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$276
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
175.9%
Average inflation rate
4.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$276
Price difference ($100 base)
$176
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1978 → 2002
$276
$100 in 2002 → 1978
$36.24
What happened to prices between 1978 and 2002
Between 1978 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 175.9%, which works out to an average of
4.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.36 buys in 2002: the 1978 dollar
lost 63.8% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 2002 at the same ratio, 2.76: $1,000 becomes
$2,759, and $10,000 becomes $27,592.
Amount in 1978
Value in 2002
$1.00
$2.76
$5.00
$13.80
$10.00
$27.59
$20.00
$55.18
$50.00
$138
$100
$276
$500
$1,380
$1,000
$2,759
$5,000
$13,796
$10,000
$27,592
$100,000
$275,920
$1,000,000
$2,759,202
Inflation by spending category, 1978–2002
Between 1978 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 362.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 52.3%, against 175.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.32%
$276
Medical care
6.59%
$462
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.55%
$291
Housing
4.52%
$289
Transportation
3.85%
$248
Food
3.80%
$245
Energy
3.57%
$232
Apparel
1.77%
$152
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 2002
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.21% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$276
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $200 by
1990, on its way to $276 in 2002; 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 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $276; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 2002: $100 is worth $276 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2002/