$100 in 1953 is worth $403 in 1985,
because prices increased 303.0% over that period, an average of
4.45% a year.
$100 in 1953 has
the same buying power as
$403
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
303.0%
Average inflation rate
4.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$403
Price difference ($100 base)
$303
CPI in 1953
26.7
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1953 → 1985
$403
$100 in 1985 → 1953
$24.81
What happened to prices between 1953 and 1985
Between 1953 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.7 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 303.0%, which works out to an average of
4.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1953 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1985: the 1953 dollar
lost 75.2% of its purchasing power over
these 32 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1953 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 4.03: $1,000 becomes
$4,030, and $10,000 becomes $40,300.
Amount in 1953
Value in 1985
$1.00
$4.03
$5.00
$20.15
$10.00
$40.30
$20.00
$80.60
$50.00
$201
$100
$403
$500
$2,015
$1,000
$4,030
$5,000
$20,150
$10,000
$40,300
$100,000
$402,996
$1,000,000
$4,029,963
Inflation by spending category, 1953–1985
Between 1953 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 556.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 143.6%, against 303.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1953
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1953 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.45%
$403
Medical care
6.05%
$656
Transportation
4.44%
$402
Food
4.20%
$373
Apparel
2.82%
$244
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1953: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1953 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.48% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1953–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1953, at end
1953–1960
1.48%
10.9%
$111
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$145
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$309
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$403
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1953
$100 from 1953 had already become $137 by
1969, on its way to $403 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 1953 had the buying
power of $403; 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 1953 to 1985: $100 is worth $403 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1953 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1953-to-1985/