$100 in 1978 is worth $368 in 2016,
because prices increased 268.1% over that period, an average of
3.49% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$368
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
268.1%
Average inflation rate
3.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$368
Price difference ($100 base)
$268
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1978 → 2016
$368
$100 in 2016 → 1978
$27.17
What happened to prices between 1978 and 2016
Between 1978 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 268.1%, which works out to an average of
3.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.27 buys in 2016: the 1978 dollar
lost 72.8% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 2016 at the same ratio, 3.68: $1,000 becomes
$3,681, and $10,000 becomes $36,811.
Amount in 1978
Value in 2016
$1.00
$3.68
$5.00
$18.41
$10.00
$36.81
$20.00
$73.62
$50.00
$184
$100
$368
$500
$1,841
$1,000
$3,681
$5,000
$18,405
$10,000
$36,811
$100,000
$368,109
$1,000,000
$3,681,089
Inflation by spending category, 1978–2016
Between 1978 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 650.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 54.8%, against 268.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.49%
$368
Medical care
5.45%
$750
Housing
3.65%
$391
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.56%
$378
Energy
3.44%
$361
Food
3.31%
$344
Transportation
3.07%
$316
Apparel
1.16%
$155
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$368
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $241 by
1996, on its way to $368 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $368; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 2016: $100 is worth $368 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2016/