$100 in 1978 is worth $363 in 2014,
because prices increased 263.1% over that period, an average of
3.65% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$363
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
263.1%
Average inflation rate
3.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$363
Price difference ($100 base)
$263
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1978 → 2014
$363
$100 in 2014 → 1978
$27.54
What happened to prices between 1978 and 2014
Between 1978 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 263.1%, which works out to an average of
3.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.28 buys in 2014: the 1978 dollar
lost 72.5% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 2014 at the same ratio, 3.63: $1,000 becomes
$3,631, and $10,000 becomes $36,309.
Amount in 1978
Value in 2014
$1.00
$3.63
$5.00
$18.15
$10.00
$36.31
$20.00
$72.62
$50.00
$182
$100
$363
$500
$1,815
$1,000
$3,631
$5,000
$18,155
$10,000
$36,309
$100,000
$363,092
$1,000,000
$3,630,920
Inflation by spending category, 1978–2014
Between 1978 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 604.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 56.7%, against 263.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.65%
$363
Medical care
5.57%
$704
Energy
4.36%
$464
Housing
3.73%
$374
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.65%
$363
Transportation
3.54%
$350
Food
3.43%
$337
Apparel
1.25%
$157
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 2014
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–2014 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$334
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$363
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $241 by
1996, on its way to $363 in 2014; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $363; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 2014: $100 is worth $363 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2014/