$100 in 1919 is worth $622 in 1985,
because prices increased 522.0% over that period, an average of
2.81% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$622
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
522.0%
Average inflation rate
2.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$622
Price difference ($100 base)
$522
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1919 → 1985
$622
$100 in 1985 → 1919
$16.08
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1985
Between 1919 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 522.0%, which works out to an average of
2.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1985: the 1919 dollar
lost 83.9% of its purchasing power over
these 66 years.
The fighting in Europe ended in November 1918, but American prices kept
climbing through 1919 almost as fast as they had during the war itself,
rising 14.6% for the year. Wartime price and production controls were being
dismantled, millions of soldiers were returning to the civilian labor
market, and demand that had been held back for years ran into supply that
had not caught up, a combination that kept the cost of living rising even
with the guns silent. Workers, whose pay had fallen behind three straight
years of double-digit inflation, pushed back: a general strike shut down
Seattle in February, Boston’s police force walked out in September, and a
nationwide steel strike that same month drew in roughly 350,000 workers and
ran into the following January. One price did fall that year: first-class
postage reverted to 2 cents on July 1, ending the wartime 3-cent rate that
had funded part of the war effort since late 1917. By year’s end, prices had
risen close to 75% since the CPI’s 1913 starting point,
compressing more than a decade of typical peacetime inflation into six years
of war and its aftermath.
Every 1919 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 6.22: $1,000 becomes
$6,220, and $10,000 becomes $62,197.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1985
$1.00
$6.22
$5.00
$31.10
$10.00
$62.20
$20.00
$124
$50.00
$311
$100
$622
$500
$3,110
$1,000
$6,220
$5,000
$31,098
$10,000
$62,197
$100,000
$621,965
$1,000,000
$6,219,653
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1985
Between 1919 and 1985, food rose the most, up 467.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 190.1%, against 522.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.81%
$622
Food
2.67%
$568
Apparel
1.63%
$290
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1919: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1919 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.61% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1919–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1919, at end
1919–1920
15.61%
15.6%
$116
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$96.53
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.92
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$139
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$171
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$224
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$476
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$622
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $155 by
1954, on its way to $622 in 1985; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 15.6% in 1920, 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 1919 had the buying
power of $622; 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 1919 to 1985: $100 is worth $622 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1985/