$100 in 1933 is worth $828 in 1985,
because prices increased 727.7% over that period, an average of
4.15% a year.
$100 in 1933 has
the same buying power as
$828
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
727.7%
Average inflation rate
4.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$828
Price difference ($100 base)
$728
CPI in 1933
13
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1933 → 1985
$828
$100 in 1985 → 1933
$12.08
What happened to prices between 1933 and 1985
Between 1933 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 13 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 727.7%, which works out to an average of
4.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1933 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1985: the 1933 dollar
lost 87.9% of its purchasing power over
these 52 years.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1933 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 8.28: $1,000 becomes
$8,277, and $10,000 becomes $82,769.
Amount in 1933
Value in 1985
$1.00
$8.28
$5.00
$41.38
$10.00
$82.77
$20.00
$166
$50.00
$414
$100
$828
$500
$4,138
$1,000
$8,277
$5,000
$41,385
$10,000
$82,769
$100,000
$827,692
$1,000,000
$8,276,923
Inflation by spending category, 1933–1985
Between 1933 and 1985, food rose the most, up 915.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 458.5%, against 727.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1933
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1933 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.15%
$828
Food
4.56%
$1,015
Apparel
3.36%
$559
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1933: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1933 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (1.06% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1933–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1933, at end
1933–1940
1.06%
7.7%
$108
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$185
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$228
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$298
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$634
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$828
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1933
$100 from 1933 had already become $224 by
1959, on its way to $828 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 2.1% in 1938, 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 1933 had the buying
power of $828; 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 1933 to 1985: $100 is worth $828 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1933 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1933-to-1985/