$100 in 1951 is worth $414 in 1985,
because prices increased 313.8% over that period, an average of
4.27% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$414
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
313.8%
Average inflation rate
4.27% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$414
Price difference ($100 base)
$314
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1951 → 1985
$414
$100 in 1985 → 1951
$24.16
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1985
Between 1951 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 313.8%, which works out to an average of
4.27% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.24 buys in 1985: the 1951 dollar
lost 75.8% of its purchasing power over
these 34 years.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
Every 1951 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 4.14: $1,000 becomes
$4,138, and $10,000 becomes $41,385.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1985
$1.00
$4.14
$5.00
$20.69
$10.00
$41.38
$20.00
$82.77
$50.00
$207
$100
$414
$500
$2,069
$1,000
$4,138
$5,000
$20,692
$10,000
$41,385
$100,000
$413,846
$1,000,000
$4,138,462
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1985
Between 1951 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 613.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 139.2%, against 313.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.27%
$414
Medical care
5.95%
$714
Transportation
4.46%
$441
Food
3.96%
$374
Apparel
2.60%
$239
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1951: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1951 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1951–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1951, at end
1951–1960
1.45%
13.8%
$114
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$149
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$317
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$414
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $128 by
1967, on its way to $414 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 1951 had the buying
power of $414; 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 1951 to 1985: $100 is worth $414 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1985/