$100 in 1956 is worth $396 in 1985,
because prices increased 295.6% over that period, an average of
4.86% a year.
$100 in 1956 has
the same buying power as
$396
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
295.6%
Average inflation rate
4.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$396
Price difference ($100 base)
$296
CPI in 1956
27.2
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1956 → 1985
$396
$100 in 1985 → 1956
$25.28
What happened to prices between 1956 and 1985
Between 1956 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 27.2 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 295.6%, which works out to an average of
4.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1956 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1985: the 1956 dollar
lost 74.7% of its purchasing power over
these 29 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
Every 1956 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 3.96: $1,000 becomes
$3,956, and $10,000 becomes $39,559.
Amount in 1956
Value in 1985
$1.00
$3.96
$5.00
$19.78
$10.00
$39.56
$20.00
$79.12
$50.00
$198
$100
$396
$500
$1,978
$1,000
$3,956
$5,000
$19,779
$10,000
$39,559
$100,000
$395,588
$1,000,000
$3,955,882
Inflation by spending category, 1956–1985
Between 1956 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 500.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 140.3%, against 295.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1956
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1956 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.86%
$396
Medical care
6.38%
$601
Transportation
4.95%
$406
Food
4.68%
$377
Apparel
3.07%
$240
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1956: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1956 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.14% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1956–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1956, at end
1956–1960
2.14%
8.8%
$109
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$143
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$303
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$396
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1956
$100 from 1956 had already become $143 by
1970, on its way to $396 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 the smallest rise was 0.7% in 1959.
In 1985, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1956 had the buying
power of $396; 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 1956 to 1985: $100 is worth $396 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1956 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1956-to-1985/