$100 in 1952 is worth $406 in 1985,
because prices increased 306.0% over that period, an average of
4.34% a year.
$100 in 1952 has
the same buying power as
$406
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
306.0%
Average inflation rate
4.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$406
Price difference ($100 base)
$306
CPI in 1952
26.5
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1952 → 1985
$406
$100 in 1985 → 1952
$24.63
What happened to prices between 1952 and 1985
Between 1952 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.5 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 306.0%, which works out to an average of
4.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1952 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1985: the 1952 dollar
lost 75.4% of its purchasing power over
these 33 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.9% in 1952, down sharply from 1951’s
7.9% as the price and wage controls imposed the year before held the cost
of living in check even with the Korean War still underway. Labor strife
tested those controls that spring: to head off a strike that could have
disrupted war production, President Truman ordered the government to
seize the steel industry that April, over the objections of steel
companies fighting the price the Office of Price Stabilization had set for
their product. The Supreme Court ruled the seizure unconstitutional in
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer that June, a landmark limit on
presidential power, and steelworkers then struck for 53 days before a
settlement. Politics delivered the year’s biggest change that November:
Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson, promising to “go to Korea” to
end the war and returning Republicans to the White House for the first
time since 1933. The Cold War’s technological edge sharpened that same
month, when the United States tested the first hydrogen bomb at Enewetak
Atoll on November 1, a device hundreds of times more powerful than the
atomic bombs used against Japan in 1945. Consumer prices finished 1952
167.7% above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1952 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 4.06: $1,000 becomes
$4,060, and $10,000 becomes $40,604.
Amount in 1952
Value in 1985
$1.00
$4.06
$5.00
$20.30
$10.00
$40.60
$20.00
$81.21
$50.00
$203
$100
$406
$500
$2,030
$1,000
$4,060
$5,000
$20,302
$10,000
$40,604
$100,000
$406,038
$1,000,000
$4,060,377
Inflation by spending category, 1952–1985
Between 1952 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 579.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 141.4%, against 306.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1952
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1952 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.34%
$406
Medical care
5.98%
$680
Transportation
4.40%
$414
Food
4.03%
$368
Apparel
2.71%
$241
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1952: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1952 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1952–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1952, at end
1952–1960
1.39%
11.7%
$112
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$146
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$311
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$406
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1952
$100 from 1952 had already become $131 by
1968, on its way to $406 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 1952 had the buying
power of $406; 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 1952 to 1985: $100 is worth $406 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1952 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1952-to-1985/