$100 in 1945 is worth $598 in 1985,
because prices increased 497.8% over that period, an average of
4.57% a year.
$100 in 1945 has
the same buying power as
$598
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
497.8%
Average inflation rate
4.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$598
Price difference ($100 base)
$498
CPI in 1945
18
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1945 → 1985
$598
$100 in 1985 → 1945
$16.73
What happened to prices between 1945 and 1985
Between 1945 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 18 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 497.8%, which works out to an average of
4.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1945 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1985: the 1945 dollar
lost 83.3% of its purchasing power over
these 40 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1945, up from 1944’s 1.7% but
still modest, a rate that understated how much pressure had built up behind
wartime price and wage controls, which stayed largely in place even as the
conflict that justified them came to a close. The year opened with a shock
at home: Franklin Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, less
than three months into an unprecedented fourth term, and Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in that same afternoon. The war Roosevelt had led for
nearly four years ended without him. Germany surrendered on May 8, and
Japan surrendered on August 15, after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that month, with the formal signing aboard the USS Missouri on
September 2. Domestic policy kept moving even as the guns fell silent: the
federal minimum wage rose to 40 cents an hour that October 24, the final
step of the schedule Congress had built into the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act, up from 30 cents in 1939 and 25 cents at the law’s start. Consumer
prices stood 81.8% above their 1913 level, a gain that would
look modest next to what followed once wartime controls actually came off.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
Every 1945 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 5.98: $1,000 becomes
$5,978, and $10,000 becomes $59,778.
Amount in 1945
Value in 1985
$1.00
$5.98
$5.00
$29.89
$10.00
$59.78
$20.00
$120
$50.00
$299
$100
$598
$500
$2,989
$1,000
$5,978
$5,000
$29,889
$10,000
$59,778
$100,000
$597,778
$1,000,000
$5,977,778
Inflation by spending category, 1945–1985
Between 1945 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 853.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 234.4%, against 497.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1945
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1945 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.57%
$598
Medical care
5.80%
$954
Transportation
4.87%
$669
Food
4.63%
$610
Apparel
3.06%
$334
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1945: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1945 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 1945–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1945, at end
1945–1950
6.01%
33.9%
$134
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$164
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$216
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$458
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$598
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1945
$100 from 1945 had already become $175 by
1965, on its way to $598 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 1945 had the buying
power of $598; 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 1945 to 1985: $100 is worth $598 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1945 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1945-to-1985/