$100 in 1935 is worth $785 in 1985,
because prices increased 685.4% over that period, an average of
4.21% a year.
$100 in 1935 has
the same buying power as
$785
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
685.4%
Average inflation rate
4.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$785
Price difference ($100 base)
$685
CPI in 1935
13.7
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1935 → 1985
$785
$100 in 1985 → 1935
$12.73
What happened to prices between 1935 and 1985
Between 1935 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 13.7 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 685.4%, which works out to an average of
4.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1935 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1985: the 1935 dollar
lost 87.3% of its purchasing power over
these 50 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.2% in 1935, a second straight annual increase after
1934’s turnaround, though the CPI still sat well below its
1929 peak and the recovery remained uneven and incomplete.
The year’s biggest legislative achievements aimed at making that unevenness
less punishing. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14,
creating federal old-age pensions and unemployment insurance funded by a new
payroll tax, the first federal safety net of its kind in U.S. history. That
spring, the Works Progress Administration had already begun putting millions
of unemployed Americans to work on public construction, arts, and
infrastructure projects, becoming the largest jobs program of the New Deal.
Congress added labor protections to the mix that July with the National
Labor Relations Act, guaranteeing most private-sector workers the right to
organize and bargain collectively. The human cost of the Dust Bowl was still
mounting on the Plains: the storm known as Black Sunday hit on April 14,
one of the worst of the decade, and continued drought kept driving farm
families off land that could no longer support them. Consumer prices ended
the year 38.4% above their 1913 level. First-class postage
held at 3 cents.
Every 1935 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 7.85: $1,000 becomes
$7,854, and $10,000 becomes $78,540.
Amount in 1935
Value in 1985
$1.00
$7.85
$5.00
$39.27
$10.00
$78.54
$20.00
$157
$50.00
$393
$100
$785
$500
$3,927
$1,000
$7,854
$5,000
$39,270
$10,000
$78,540
$100,000
$785,401
$1,000,000
$7,854,015
Inflation by spending category, 1935–1985
Between 1935 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 1012.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 404.8%, against 685.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1935
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1935 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.21%
$785
Medical care
4.94%
$1,113
Food
4.38%
$852
Transportation
4.11%
$749
Apparel
3.29%
$505
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1935: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1935 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1930s (0.43% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1935–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1935, at end
1935–1940
0.43%
2.2%
$102
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$176
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$216
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$283
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$601
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$785
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1935
$100 from 1935 had already become $212 by
1959, on its way to $785 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 1935 had the buying
power of $785; 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 1935 to 1985: $100 is worth $785 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1935 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1935-to-1985/