$100 in 1934 is worth $803 in 1985,
because prices increased 703.0% over that period, an average of
4.17% a year.
$100 in 1934 has
the same buying power as
$803
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
703.0%
Average inflation rate
4.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$803
Price difference ($100 base)
$703
CPI in 1934
13.4
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1934 → 1985
$803
$100 in 1985 → 1934
$12.45
What happened to prices between 1934 and 1985
Between 1934 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.4 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 703.0%, which works out to an average of
4.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1934 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1985: the 1934 dollar
lost 87.5% of its purchasing power over
these 51 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1934, the first annual increase since 1926;
every year from 1927 through 1933 had been flat or falling,
so the turn marked a real break after eight years without a single gain.
Currency policy did some of the work. The Gold Reserve Act, signed January
30, formally devalued the dollar by raising the official price of gold from
$20.67 to $35 an ounce, part of the administration’s deliberate effort to
reflate prices after four straight years of deflation. Financial regulation
tightened at the same time: the Securities Exchange Act of June 6 created
the Securities and Exchange Commission to police stock exchanges and enforce
disclosure rules, a direct response to the speculation blamed for the 1929
crash. The recovery was fragile and unevenly felt, especially on the Great
Plains, where drought had turned overplowed farmland to dust. Over May 9-11,
high winds lifted an estimated 350 million tons of topsoil into the air,
darkening skies as far away as Washington and New York and giving city
readers who had never seen a wheat field a first glimpse of the disaster
building in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Consumer prices stood 35.4% above
their 1913 level, still well below the 1929 peak but rising
for the first time since the Depression began. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
Every 1934 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 8.03: $1,000 becomes
$8,030, and $10,000 becomes $80,299.
Amount in 1934
Value in 1985
$1.00
$8.03
$5.00
$40.15
$10.00
$80.30
$20.00
$161
$50.00
$401
$100
$803
$500
$4,015
$1,000
$8,030
$5,000
$40,149
$10,000
$80,299
$100,000
$802,985
$1,000,000
$8,029,851
Inflation by spending category, 1934–1985
Between 1934 and 1985, food rose the most, up 810.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 409.7%, against 703.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1934
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1934 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.17%
$803
Food
4.43%
$910
Apparel
3.25%
$510
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1934: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1934 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1934–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1934, at end
1934–1940
0.73%
4.5%
$104
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$180
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$221
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$290
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$615
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$803
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1934
$100 from 1934 had already become $221 by
1960, on its way to $803 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 1934 had the buying
power of $803; 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 1934 to 1985: $100 is worth $803 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1934 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1934-to-1985/