$100 in 1941 is worth $732 in 1985,
because prices increased 632.0% over that period, an average of
4.63% a year.
$100 in 1941 has
the same buying power as
$732
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
632.0%
Average inflation rate
4.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$732
Price difference ($100 base)
$632
CPI in 1941
14.7
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1941 → 1985
$732
$100 in 1985 → 1941
$13.66
What happened to prices between 1941 and 1985
Between 1941 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 14.7 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 632.0%, which works out to an average of
4.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1941 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1985: the 1941 dollar
lost 86.3% of its purchasing power over
these 44 years.
Consumer prices rose 5.0% in 1941, up sharply from just 0.7% in
1940 and the fastest annual increase since 1920, as
rearmament and Lend-Lease production pushed demand well ahead of peacetime
supply even before the United States formally joined the war. Congress had
already tilted the country away from neutrality that March, passing the
Lend-Lease Act to arm Britain, and later the Soviet Union and other Allies,
without requiring immediate payment. That April, the government created the
Office of Price Administration to hold down the cost of civilian goods, the
start of a price-control system that would keep official inflation numbers
well below what wartime demand alone would have produced over the next four
years. Then, on December 7, Japan attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor,
destroying much of the Pacific Fleet and killing more than 2,400 Americans.
Congress declared war on Japan the next day and on Germany and Italy three
days later, ending years of debate over whether the United States should
stay out of the conflict spreading across Europe and Asia. Consumer prices,
already up 48.5% from their 1913 level, would climb far
faster over the next two years as the economy converted fully to war
production. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at 30 cents an hour.
Every 1941 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 7.32: $1,000 becomes
$7,320, and $10,000 becomes $73,197.
Amount in 1941
Value in 1985
$1.00
$7.32
$5.00
$36.60
$10.00
$73.20
$20.00
$146
$50.00
$366
$100
$732
$500
$3,660
$1,000
$7,320
$5,000
$36,599
$10,000
$73,197
$100,000
$731,973
$1,000,000
$7,319,728
Inflation by spending category, 1941–1985
Between 1941 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 991.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 360.5%, against 632.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1941
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1941 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.63%
$732
Medical care
5.58%
$1,091
Food
4.86%
$806
Transportation
4.60%
$724
Apparel
3.53%
$461
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1941: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1941 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1941–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1941, at end
1941–1950
5.65%
63.9%
$164
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$201
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$264
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$561
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$732
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1941
$100 from 1941 had already become $208 by
1963, on its way to $732 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 1.2% in 1949, 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 1941 had the buying
power of $732; 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 1941 to 1985: $100 is worth $732 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1941 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1941-to-1985/