$100 in 1944 is worth $611 in 1985,
because prices increased 511.4% over that period, an average of
4.51% a year.
$100 in 1944 has
the same buying power as
$611
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
511.4%
Average inflation rate
4.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$611
Price difference ($100 base)
$511
CPI in 1944
17.6
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1944 → 1985
$611
$100 in 1985 → 1944
$16.36
What happened to prices between 1944 and 1985
Between 1944 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.6 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 511.4%, which works out to an average of
4.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1944 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1985: the 1944 dollar
lost 83.6% of its purchasing power over
these 41 years.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
Every 1944 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 6.11: $1,000 becomes
$6,114, and $10,000 becomes $61,136.
Amount in 1944
Value in 1985
$1.00
$6.11
$5.00
$30.57
$10.00
$61.14
$20.00
$122
$50.00
$306
$100
$611
$500
$3,057
$1,000
$6,114
$5,000
$30,568
$10,000
$61,136
$100,000
$611,364
$1,000,000
$6,113,636
Inflation by spending category, 1944–1985
Between 1944 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 878.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 252.3%, against 511.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1944
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1944 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.51%
$611
Medical care
5.72%
$978
Transportation
4.75%
$669
Food
4.57%
$625
Apparel
3.12%
$352
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1944: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1944 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 1944–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1944, at end
1944–1950
5.38%
36.9%
$137
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$168
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$220
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$468
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$611
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1944
$100 from 1944 had already become $176 by
1964, on its way to $611 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 1944 had the buying
power of $611; 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 1944 to 1985: $100 is worth $611 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1944 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1944-to-1985/