$100 in 1978 is worth $494 in 2025,
because prices increased 393.8% over that period, an average of
3.46% a year.
$100 in 1978 has
the same buying power as
$494
in 2025
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
393.8%
Average inflation rate
3.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$494
Price difference ($100 base)
$394
CPI in 1978
65.2
CPI in 2025
321.943
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
Inflation in 2025
2.63%
$100 in 1978 → 2025
$494
$100 in 2025 → 1978
$20.25
What happened to prices between 1978 and 2025
Between 1978 and 2025, the Consumer Price Index went from 65.2 to 321.943.
Cumulatively, prices increased 393.8%, which works out to an average of
3.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1978 bought what
$0.20 buys in 2025: the 1978 dollar
lost 79.7% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 2025 at the same ratio, 4.94: $1,000 becomes
$4,938, and $10,000 becomes $49,378.
Amount in 1978
Value in 2025
$1.00
$4.94
$5.00
$24.69
$10.00
$49.38
$20.00
$98.76
$50.00
$247
$100
$494
$500
$2,469
$1,000
$4,938
$5,000
$24,689
$10,000
$49,378
$100,000
$493,778
$1,000,000
$4,937,776
Inflation by spending category, 1978–2025
Between 1978 and 2025, medical care rose the most, up 838.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 61.3%, against 393.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1978
spending costs in 2025, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1978 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.46%
$494
Medical care
4.88%
$939
Housing
3.72%
$556
Energy
3.62%
$532
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.49%
$501
Food
3.35%
$472
Transportation
3.21%
$441
Apparel
1.02%
$161
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1978: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1978 to 2025
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 12.42% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1978–2025 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$397
2020–2025
4.46%
24.4%
$494
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1978
$100 from 1978 had already become $276 by
2002, on its way to $494 in 2025; 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: 2025
In 2025, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1978 had the buying
power of $494; the year's average CPI of 321.943 is the level
behind every 2025 figure on this page.
2025 was a year of trade policy and data disruptions rather than an
inflation surge. Consumer prices rose 2.6% on average, a step down from
2024’s 2.9% and well below the 8.0% of 2022. Tariffs announced in April
pushed up prices for some imported goods, including furniture, apparel, and
auto parts, but the effect on the overall index was smaller than many
forecasters feared at the start of the year, in part because retailers
absorbed some of the cost and demand for services stayed steady.
The Federal Reserve held its policy rate steady through the first half of the
year, then began cutting again in September, lowering it in three quarter-point
steps to 3.50–3.75% by December.
The federal government shutdown that began October 1 lasted 43 days, and the
Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish a CPI for October 2025 because the
survey data could not be collected. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 78 cents in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1978 to 2025: $100 is worth $494 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2025/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1978 to 2025. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1978-to-2025/