$100 in 1978 is worth $364 in 2015,
because prices increased 263.5% over that period, an average of
3.55% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$364
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
263.5%
Average inflation rate
3.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$364
Price difference ($100 base)
$264
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1978 → 2015
$364
$100 in 2015 → 1978
$27.51
What happened to prices between 1978 and 2015
Between 1978 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 263.5%, which works out to an average of
3.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.28 buys in 2015: the 1978 dollar
lost 72.5% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 2015 at the same ratio, 3.64: $1,000 becomes
$3,635, and $10,000 becomes $36,352.
Amount in 1978
Value in 2015
$1.00
$3.64
$5.00
$18.18
$10.00
$36.35
$20.00
$72.70
$50.00
$182
$100
$364
$500
$1,818
$1,000
$3,635
$5,000
$18,176
$10,000
$36,352
$100,000
$363,523
$1,000,000
$3,635,230
Inflation by spending category, 1978–2015
Between 1978 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 622.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 54.7%, against 263.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.55%
$364
Medical care
5.49%
$723
Energy
3.72%
$386
Housing
3.69%
$382
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.60%
$370
Food
3.39%
$343
Transportation
3.22%
$323
Apparel
1.19%
$155
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$364
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $241 by
1996, on its way to $364 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $364; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 2015: $100 is worth $364 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2015/