$100 in 1930 is worth $644 in 1985,
because prices increased 544.3% over that period, an average of
3.45% a year.
$100 in 1930 has
the same buying power as
$644
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
544.3%
Average inflation rate
3.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$644
Price difference ($100 base)
$544
CPI in 1930
16.7
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1930 → 1985
$644
$100 in 1985 → 1930
$15.52
What happened to prices between 1930 and 1985
Between 1930 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.7 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 544.3%, which works out to an average of
3.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1930 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1985: the 1930 dollar
lost 84.5% of its purchasing power over
these 55 years.
Consumer prices fell 2.3% in 1930, a mild decline compared with what was
coming but the first sign that the summer 1929 downturn was not going to be
short. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that contraction from
August 1929, and by the time it finally bottomed out in March 1933 it would
run 43 months, the longest of any downturn in the NBER’s chronology back to
1854. Congress made the trade picture worse in June, when President Hoover
signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, raising duties on more than 20,000
imported goods to some of the highest levels in a century. Trading partners
retaliated with tariffs of their own, and global trade volumes collapsed
over the next several years, deepening a downturn economists still debate
how much the tariff itself worsened. The financial system cracked that fall:
a regional banking panic culminated in the December 11 failure of the Bank
of United States in New York, at the time the largest bank failure in
American history, wiping out more than $200 million in deposits. It was the
first of four banking panics that would hit the country before 1933 was
out. Consumer prices still stood 68.7% above their 1913
starting point, but the direction had clearly turned. First-class postage
held at 2 cents, unchanged for eleven straight years.
Every 1930 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 6.44: $1,000 becomes
$6,443, and $10,000 becomes $64,431.
Amount in 1930
Value in 1985
$1.00
$6.44
$5.00
$32.22
$10.00
$64.43
$20.00
$129
$50.00
$322
$100
$644
$500
$3,222
$1,000
$6,443
$5,000
$32,216
$10,000
$64,431
$100,000
$644,311
$1,000,000
$6,443,114
Inflation by spending category, 1930–1985
Between 1930 and 1985, food rose the most, up 576.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 333.9%, against 544.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1930
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1930 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.45%
$644
Food
3.54%
$677
Apparel
2.70%
$434
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1930: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1930 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 1930–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1930, at end
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$83.83
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$144
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$177
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$232
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$493
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$644
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1930
$100 from 1930 had already become $173 by
1958, on its way to $644 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 1930 had the buying
power of $644; 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 1930 to 1985: $100 is worth $644 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1930 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1930-to-1985/