$100 in 1923 is worth $629 in 1985,
because prices increased 529.2% over that period, an average of
3.01% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$629
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
529.2%
Average inflation rate
3.01% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$629
Price difference ($100 base)
$529
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1923 → 1985
$629
$100 in 1985 → 1923
$15.89
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1985
Between 1923 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 529.2%, which works out to an average of
3.01% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1985: the 1923 dollar
lost 84.1% of its purchasing power over
these 62 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.8% in 1923, the first increase since 1920 and a sign
the postwar deflation had run its course; the economy settled into the
steadier growth that defined much of the rest of the decade. The year’s
biggest shock was political rather than economic: Warren Harding died August
2 in San Francisco while returning from a trip to Alaska, and Vice President
Calvin Coolidge was sworn in the next day at his family’s farmhouse in
Plymouth Notch, Vermont, administered the oath of office by his own father,
a notary public, by lamplight. Coolidge would go on to preside over the low,
stable inflation of the “Roaring Twenties.” The contrast with Germany that
year was stark. The Weimar Republic’s currency collapse reached its peak in
November 1923, with prices doubling every few days and a loaf of bread
costing billions of marks; Germany introduced a new currency, the
Rentenmark, that month to halt the spiral. U.S. consumer prices, by
comparison, had moved in single digits or held flat every year since 1921, a
gap that shaped how American economists would later think about what made
the postwar inflation of Europe so different from the mild swings at home.
First-class postage stayed at 2 cents.
Every 1923 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 6.29: $1,000 becomes
$6,292, and $10,000 becomes $62,924.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1985
$1.00
$6.29
$5.00
$31.46
$10.00
$62.92
$20.00
$126
$50.00
$315
$100
$629
$500
$3,146
$1,000
$6,292
$5,000
$31,462
$10,000
$62,924
$100,000
$629,240
$1,000,000
$6,292,398
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1985
Between 1923 and 1985, food rose the most, up 585.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 287.5%, against 529.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.01%
$629
Food
3.15%
$686
Apparel
2.21%
$387
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1923: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1923 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1923–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1923, at end
1923–1930
-0.34%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$81.87
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$141
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$173
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$227
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$482
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$629
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $156 by
1953, on its way to $629 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 9.9% in 1932, 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 1923 had the buying
power of $629; 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 1923 to 1985: $100 is worth $629 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1985/