$100 in 1954 is worth $400 in 1985,
because prices increased 300.0% over that period, an average of
4.57% a year.
$100 in 1954 has
the same buying power as
$400
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
300.0%
Average inflation rate
4.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$400
Price difference ($100 base)
$300
CPI in 1954
26.9
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1954 → 1985
$400
$100 in 1985 → 1954
$25.00
What happened to prices between 1954 and 1985
Between 1954 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 26.9 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 300.0%, which works out to an average of
4.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1954 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1985: the 1954 dollar
lost 75.0% of its purchasing power over
these 31 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
Every 1954 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 4.00: $1,000 becomes
$4,000, and $10,000 becomes $40,000.
Amount in 1954
Value in 1985
$1.00
$4.00
$5.00
$20.00
$10.00
$40.00
$20.00
$80.00
$50.00
$200
$100
$400
$500
$2,000
$1,000
$4,000
$5,000
$20,000
$10,000
$40,000
$100,000
$400,000
$1,000,000
$4,000,000
Inflation by spending category, 1954–1985
Between 1954 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 537.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 143.6%, against 300.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1954
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1954 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.57%
$400
Medical care
6.16%
$638
Transportation
4.64%
$408
Food
4.35%
$374
Apparel
2.91%
$244
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1954: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1954 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1954–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1954, at end
1954–1960
1.61%
10.0%
$110
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$144
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$306
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$400
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1954
$100 from 1954 had already become $144 by
1970, on its way to $400 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 1954 had the buying
power of $400; 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 1954 to 1985: $100 is worth $400 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1954 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1954-to-1985/