$100 in 1978 is worth $282 in 2003,
because prices increased 182.2% over that period, an average of
4.24% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$282
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
182.2%
Average inflation rate
4.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$282
Price difference ($100 base)
$182
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1978 → 2003
$282
$100 in 2003 → 1978
$35.43
What happened to prices between 1978 and 2003
Between 1978 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 182.2%, which works out to an average of
4.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.35 buys in 2003: the 1978 dollar
lost 64.6% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 2003 at the same ratio, 2.82: $1,000 becomes
$2,822, and $10,000 becomes $28,221.
Amount in 1978
Value in 2003
$1.00
$2.82
$5.00
$14.11
$10.00
$28.22
$20.00
$56.44
$50.00
$141
$100
$282
$500
$1,411
$1,000
$2,822
$5,000
$14,110
$10,000
$28,221
$100,000
$282,209
$1,000,000
$2,822,086
Inflation by spending category, 1978–2003
Between 1978 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 380.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 48.5%, against 182.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.24%
$282
Medical care
6.48%
$481
Housing
4.44%
$296
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.42%
$295
Energy
3.90%
$260
Transportation
3.82%
$255
Food
3.73%
$250
Apparel
1.59%
$149
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 2003
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.23% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$282
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $200 by
1990, on its way to $282 in 2003; 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 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $282; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 2003: $100 is worth $282 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2003/