$100 in 1920 is worth $538 in 1985,
because prices increased 438.0% over that period, an average of
2.62% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$538
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
438.0%
Average inflation rate
2.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$538
Price difference ($100 base)
$438
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1920 → 1985
$538
$100 in 1985 → 1920
$18.59
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1985
Between 1920 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 438.0%, which works out to an average of
2.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1985: the 1920 dollar
lost 81.4% of its purchasing power over
these 65 years.
1920 was the last year of the inflation that had built since the war began:
consumer prices rose 15.6% for the year, leaving the CPI more than double its
1913 starting level after seven straight years of increases.
The boom behind those increases turned to bust before the year was over. The
Federal Reserve, worried about speculation, pushed its discount rate to a
record 7% that spring, and wholesale prices, which had led the wartime
runup, began collapsing within months. The National Bureau of Economic
Research dates the resulting downturn from January 1920 to July 1921, one of
the shortest but steepest contractions in U.S. history, and consumer prices
followed into outright decline, falling 10.5% in 1921. Two constitutional
changes reshaped the country that year, too. The 18th Amendment’s ban on
alcohol took legal effect January 17, enforced under the Volstead Act
Congress had passed the previous October. Then, on August 18, Tennessee’s
ratification of the 19th Amendment secured women’s right to vote nationwide,
and women cast ballots in a presidential election for the first time that
November, when Warren Harding won on a promise to return the country to
“normalcy” after a decade of war, pandemic, and rising prices. First-class
postage held at 2 cents, unchanged since mid-1919.
Every 1920 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 5.38: $1,000 becomes
$5,380, and $10,000 becomes $53,800.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1985
$1.00
$5.38
$5.00
$26.90
$10.00
$53.80
$20.00
$108
$50.00
$269
$100
$538
$500
$2,690
$1,000
$5,380
$5,000
$26,900
$10,000
$53,800
$100,000
$538,000
$1,000,000
$5,380,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1985
Between 1920 and 1985, food rose the most, up 402.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 143.6%, against 438.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.62%
$538
Food
2.52%
$503
Apparel
1.38%
$244
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1920: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1920 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1920, at end
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$83.50
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$70.00
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$121
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$148
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$194
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$412
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$538
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $121 by
1950, on its way to $538 in 1985; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, 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 1920 had the buying
power of $538; 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 1920 to 1985: $100 is worth $538 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1985/