$100 in 1925 is worth $615 in 1985,
because prices increased 514.9% over that period, an average of
3.07% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$615
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
514.9%
Average inflation rate
3.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$615
Price difference ($100 base)
$515
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1925 → 1985
$615
$100 in 1985 → 1925
$16.26
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1985
Between 1925 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 514.9%, which works out to an average of
3.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1985: the 1925 dollar
lost 83.7% of its purchasing power over
these 60 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1925, the CPI’s largest single-year increase
since the deflationary swings of the early 1920s, though still mild next to
the double-digit inflation of the World War I years. The country’s cultural
fault lines were on full display that summer in Dayton, Tennessee, where
high school teacher John Scopes was tried July 10-21 for violating a state
law against teaching evolution, a case that drew national press coverage and
pitted prosecutor William Jennings Bryan against defense attorney Clarence
Darrow. Real estate speculation, meanwhile, peaked in Florida, where buyers
flipped undeveloped land in the Miami area on thin down payments, driving
prices far above what the land itself could support; the bubble would
collapse the following year. Detroit reshuffled that June too: Walter
Chrysler reorganized the struggling Maxwell Motor Company into Chrysler
Corporation, the start of what would become one of the American auto
industry’s “Big Three.” First-class postage held at 2 cents for the sixth
straight year.
Every 1925 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 6.15: $1,000 becomes
$6,149, and $10,000 becomes $61,486.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1985
$1.00
$6.15
$5.00
$30.74
$10.00
$61.49
$20.00
$123
$50.00
$307
$100
$615
$500
$3,074
$1,000
$6,149
$5,000
$30,743
$10,000
$61,486
$100,000
$614,857
$1,000,000
$6,148,571
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1985
Between 1925 and 1985, food rose the most, up 540.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 299.2%, against 514.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.07%
$615
Food
3.14%
$640
Apparel
2.33%
$399
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1925: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1925 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 1925–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1925, at end
1925–1930
-0.93%
-4.6%
$95.43
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.00
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$138
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$169
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$222
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$471
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$615
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $153 by
1955, on its way to $615 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 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1985
In 1985, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $615; 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 1925 to 1985: $100 is worth $615 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1985/