$100 in 1978 is worth $330 in 2008,
because prices increased 230.2% over that period, an average of
4.06% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$330
in 2008
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
230.2%
Average inflation rate
4.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$330
Price difference ($100 base)
$230
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 2008
215.303
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 2008
3.84%
$100 in 1978 → 2008
$330
$100 in 2008 → 1978
$30.28
What happened to prices between 1978 and 2008
Between 1978 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 215.303.
Cumulatively, prices increased 230.2%, which works out to an average of
4.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.30 buys in 2008: the 1978 dollar
lost 69.7% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 2008 at the same ratio, 3.30: $1,000 becomes
$3,302, and $10,000 becomes $33,022.
Amount in 1978
Value in 2008
$1.00
$3.30
$5.00
$16.51
$10.00
$33.02
$20.00
$66.04
$50.00
$165
$100
$330
$500
$1,651
$1,000
$3,302
$5,000
$16,511
$10,000
$33,022
$100,000
$330,219
$1,000,000
$3,302,193
Inflation by spending category, 1978–2008
Between 1978 and 2008, medical care rose the most, up 489.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 46.1%, against 230.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 2008, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.06%
$330
Medical care
6.09%
$589
Energy
5.15%
$451
Housing
4.23%
$347
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.05%
$329
Transportation
3.92%
$317
Food
3.70%
$297
Apparel
1.27%
$146
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 2008
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 1978–2008 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
2000–2008
2.83%
25.0%
$330
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $222 by
1993, on its way to $330 in 2008; 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 2008, prices rose 3.8% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $330; the year's average CPI of 215.303 is the level
behind every 2008 figure on this page.
Inflation averaged 3.8% in 2008, but that figure hides a swing. The 12-month rate reached 5.6% in
July, when oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline passed $4 a gallon, then fell to 0.1% by December
as crude dropped near $40. For the year, gas averaged $3.27, the highest yet. The financial
system broke in the fall: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, Congress
created the $700 billion TARP bank rescue on October 3, and the Federal Reserve cut its policy
rate to a range of 0–0.25% in December. The median household earned about $50,300, barely
above 2007, and the median new home price fell to $232,100. The minimum wage rose to $6.55 in
July, and a first-class stamp cost 42 cents. The price collapse at the end of 2008 set up the
deflation of 2009.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 2008: $100 is worth $330 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2008/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 2008. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2008/