$100 in 1946 is worth $552 in 1985,
because prices increased 451.8% over that period, an average of
4.48% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$552
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
451.8%
Average inflation rate
4.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$552
Price difference ($100 base)
$452
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1946 → 1985
$552
$100 in 1985 → 1946
$18.12
What happened to prices between 1946 and 1985
Between 1946 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 451.8%, which works out to an average of
4.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1985: the 1946 dollar
lost 81.9% of its purchasing power over
these 39 years.
Consumer prices rose 8.3% in 1946, up sharply from 1945’s
2.3% and the sharpest increase since 1942, as wartime price controls
finally came apart. Congress let the Office of Price Administration’s
authority lapse at the end of June, reinstated a weaker version soon after,
then wound the whole system down through the rest of the year, releasing
years of pent-up demand into the price level almost at once. Meat was the
clearest casualty of the fight over decontrol: farmers withheld livestock
rather than sell at capped prices, producing severe shortages that spring
and summer until ceilings on meat were lifted that October, after which
supplies reappeared almost overnight. Labor cashed in its own wartime
restraint the same year. An estimated 4.6 million workers walked out at
some point in 1946, hitting steel, coal, automakers, and the railroads in
the largest strike wave in U.S. history, as unions pushed for wage gains to
offset cost-of-living increases controls could no longer contain. Amid the
turmoil, Congress made a less visible but lasting change to economic
policy: the Employment Act of 1946, signed that February, committed the
federal government to promoting maximum employment and created the Council
of Economic Advisers. Consumer prices stood 97.0% above their
1913 level, nearly double where the index had started 33
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
Every 1946 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 5.52: $1,000 becomes
$5,518, and $10,000 becomes $55,179.
Amount in 1946
Value in 1985
$1.00
$5.52
$5.00
$27.59
$10.00
$55.18
$20.00
$110
$50.00
$276
$100
$552
$500
$2,759
$1,000
$5,518
$5,000
$27,590
$10,000
$55,179
$100,000
$551,795
$1,000,000
$5,517,949
Inflation by spending category, 1946–1985
Between 1946 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 808.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 205.2%, against 451.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.48%
$552
Medical care
5.82%
$908
Transportation
4.86%
$637
Food
4.39%
$533
Apparel
2.90%
$305
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1946: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1946 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 1946–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1946, at end
1946–1950
5.44%
23.6%
$124
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$152
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$199
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$423
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$552
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $166 by
1966, on its way to $552 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 1946 had the buying
power of $552; 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 1946 to 1985: $100 is worth $552 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-1985/