$100 in 1957 is worth $383 in 1985,
because prices increased 282.9% over that period, an average of
4.91% a year.
$100 in 1957 has
the same buying power as
$383
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
282.9%
Average inflation rate
4.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$383
Price difference ($100 base)
$283
CPI in 1957
28.1
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1957 → 1985
$383
$100 in 1985 → 1957
$26.12
What happened to prices between 1957 and 1985
Between 1957 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 28.1 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 282.9%, which works out to an average of
4.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1957 bought what
$0.26 buys in 1985: the 1957 dollar
lost 73.9% of its purchasing power over
these 28 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1957 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 3.83: $1,000 becomes
$3,829, and $10,000 becomes $38,292.
Amount in 1957
Value in 1985
$1.00
$3.83
$5.00
$19.15
$10.00
$38.29
$20.00
$76.58
$50.00
$191
$100
$383
$500
$1,915
$1,000
$3,829
$5,000
$19,146
$10,000
$38,292
$100,000
$382,918
$1,000,000
$3,829,181
Inflation by spending category, 1957–1985
Between 1957 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 476.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 136.0%, against 282.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1957
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1957 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.91%
$383
Medical care
6.45%
$576
Energy
5.70%
$473
Transportation
4.92%
$384
Core (all items less food & energy)
4.86%
$378
Food
4.74%
$365
Apparel
3.11%
$236
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1957: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1957 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.75% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1957–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1957, at end
1957–1960
1.75%
5.3%
$105
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$138
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$293
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$383
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1957
$100 from 1957 had already become $144 by
1971, on its way to $383 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 1957 had the buying
power of $383; 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 1957 to 1985: $100 is worth $383 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1957 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1957-to-1985/