$100 in 1916 is worth $987 in 1985,
because prices increased 887.2% over that period, an average of
3.37% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$987
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
887.2%
Average inflation rate
3.37% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$987
Price difference ($100 base)
$887
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1916 → 1985
$987
$100 in 1985 → 1916
$10.13
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1985
Between 1916 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 887.2%, which works out to an average of
3.37% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1985: the 1916 dollar
lost 89.9% of its purchasing power over
these 69 years.
1916 was when World War I first showed up clearly in American price tags.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% for the year, easily the sharpest increase since
the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI history begins in 1913, as factories ran
flat out to fill steel, munitions, and food orders from Britain and France.
Railroad workers felt the squeeze from rising living costs enough to threaten
a nationwide strike; Congress headed it off in September with the Adamson
Act, which set an eight-hour standard workday for interstate rail employees,
the first federal law of its kind covering private-sector hours. Washington
was also preparing more directly for war: the National Defense Act, signed
in June, expanded the Army and National Guard and funded new
government-owned munitions plants, adding another source of demand to an
economy already running hot. Woodrow Wilson won re-election in November
largely on having kept the country out of the fighting so far, a promise
that would not survive the following spring. A first-class stamp still cost
2 cents, one of the few prices that had not yet moved.
Every 1916 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 9.87: $1,000 becomes
$9,872, and $10,000 becomes $98,716.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1985
$1.00
$9.87
$5.00
$49.36
$10.00
$98.72
$20.00
$197
$50.00
$494
$100
$987
$500
$4,936
$1,000
$9,872
$5,000
$49,358
$10,000
$98,716
$100,000
$987,156
$1,000,000
$9,871,560
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1985
Between 1916 and 1985, food rose the most, up 834.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 525.0%, against 887.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.37%
$987
Food
3.29%
$935
Apparel
2.69%
$625
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1916: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1916 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.39% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1916–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1916, at end
1916–1920
16.39%
83.5%
$183
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$153
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$128
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$221
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$272
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$356
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$756
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$987
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $239 by
1951, on its way to $987 in 1985; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 18.0% in 1918, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1985
In 1985, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $987; the year's average CPI of 107.6 is the level
behind every 1985 figure on this page.
By 1985, low inflation had become the norm rather than the exception.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% for the year, the fourth straight year in the
3-6% range following the double-digit spikes of 1980 and 1981, proof that
the disinflation had held rather than merely paused, as it had after
previous recessions. Overseas, the dollar had become a problem of its own:
years of high U.S. interest rates had pulled in foreign capital and pushed
the dollar’s value up so far that American exporters were losing business
abroad, widening the trade deficit. In September, the finance ministers of
the U.S., Japan, West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom met at New
York’s Plaza Hotel and agreed to coordinate a managed decline of the
dollar; it fell roughly 25% against major currencies over the following two
years. At home, Congress responded to a federal deficit that had roughly
tripled since 1980 by passing the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act in December,
setting binding targets to shrink the deficit with automatic
across-the-board cuts if lawmakers missed them. Households felt the calmer
economy in small ways: first-class postage rose to 22 cents in February,
its first increase since November 1981, after nearly four years at 20
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1985: $100 is worth $987 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1985/