$100 in 1949 is worth $452 in 1985,
because prices increased 352.1% over that period, an average of
4.28% a year.
$100 in 1949 has
the same buying power as
$452
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
352.1%
Average inflation rate
4.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$452
Price difference ($100 base)
$352
CPI in 1949
23.8
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1949
-1.24%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1949 → 1985
$452
$100 in 1985 → 1949
$22.12
What happened to prices between 1949 and 1985
Between 1949 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 23.8 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 352.1%, which works out to an average of
4.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1949 bought what
$0.22 buys in 1985: the 1949 dollar
lost 77.9% of its purchasing power over
these 36 years.
Consumer prices fell 1.2% in 1949, down from 1948’s 8.1%
gain and the first annual decline since 1939, the first real break in a
decade otherwise defined by wartime and postwar inflation. A mild recession
drove the drop: the National Bureau of Economic Research dates a downturn
from November 1948 to October 1949, as businesses worked off inventories
built up during the postwar buying boom and price pressure finally eased.
The Cold War hardened around the same time. On April 4, the United States,
Canada, and ten Western European nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty,
committing to treat an attack on one member as an attack on all and
formalizing the Western alliance against Soviet expansion. That August 29,
the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb, ending the American nuclear
monopoly just four years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki and setting off an
arms race that would run for decades. Congress closed out the decade’s wage
policy that October, passing the Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1949 to
raise the federal minimum wage to 75 cents an hour effective the following
January, nearly double the 40 cents that had held since 1945. The decade
closed with consumer prices 140.4% above their 1913 level,
up 70% since 1940 alone even after 1949’s decline.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
Every 1949 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 4.52: $1,000 becomes
$4,521, and $10,000 becomes $45,210.
Amount in 1949
Value in 1985
$1.00
$4.52
$5.00
$22.61
$10.00
$45.21
$20.00
$90.42
$50.00
$226
$100
$452
$500
$2,261
$1,000
$4,521
$5,000
$22,605
$10,000
$45,210
$100,000
$452,101
$1,000,000
$4,521,008
Inflation by spending category, 1949–1985
Between 1949 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 666.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 157.4%, against 352.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1949
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1949 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.28%
$452
Medical care
5.82%
$767
Transportation
4.46%
$481
Food
4.08%
$422
Apparel
2.66%
$257
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1949: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1949 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (1.26% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1949–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1949, at end
1949–1950
1.26%
1.3%
$101
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$124
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$163
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$346
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$452
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1949
$100 from 1949 had already become $140 by
1967, on its way to $452 in 1985; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, 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 1949 had the buying
power of $452; 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 1949 to 1985: $100 is worth $452 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1949 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-1985/