$100 in 1959 is worth $370 in 1985,
because prices increased 269.8% over that period, an average of
5.16% a year.
$100 in 1959 has
the same buying power as
$370
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
269.8%
Average inflation rate
5.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$370
Price difference ($100 base)
$270
CPI in 1959
29.1
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1959 → 1985
$370
$100 in 1985 → 1959
$27.04
What happened to prices between 1959 and 1985
Between 1959 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.1 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 269.8%, which works out to an average of
5.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1959 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1985: the 1959 dollar
lost 73.0% of its purchasing power over
these 26 years.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1959, down sharply from 1958’s
2.8% as the economy recovered briskly from the year before’s recession,
with output and employment both rebounding through the year. The map of
the country changed that year for the first time since 1912: Alaska
joined the union January 3, and Hawaii followed August 21, completing the
50-state United States. Ninety miles from Florida, Cuba changed hands
that January, when Fidel Castro’s guerrilla forces overthrew President
Fulgencio Batista, who fled the country on the 1st; Castro entered Havana
on the 8th, beginning a Communist government that would define Cold War
tensions in the hemisphere for decades. Labor and management fought their
longest battle of the postwar era that summer: the United Steelworkers
walked out July 15 in a dispute over work rules, the longest strike in the
industry’s history, before a federal court granted the Eisenhower
administration a Taft-Hartley back-to-work order that November. Consumer
prices finished the decade 193.9% above their 1913 level,
up 20.7% from where they stood in 1950. First-class
postage held at 4 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1959 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 3.70: $1,000 becomes
$3,698, and $10,000 becomes $36,976.
Amount in 1959
Value in 1985
$1.00
$3.70
$5.00
$18.49
$10.00
$36.98
$20.00
$73.95
$50.00
$185
$100
$370
$500
$1,849
$1,000
$3,698
$5,000
$18,488
$10,000
$36,976
$100,000
$369,759
$1,000,000
$3,697,595
Inflation by spending category, 1959–1985
Between 1959 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 427.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 133.3%, against 269.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1959
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1959 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.16%
$370
Medical care
6.61%
$528
Energy
6.08%
$464
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.06%
$361
Transportation
5.02%
$357
Food
5.00%
$356
Apparel
3.31%
$233
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1959: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1959 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.72% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1959–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1959, at end
1959–1960
1.72%
1.7%
$102
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$133
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$283
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$370
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1959
$100 from 1959 had already become $144 by
1972, on its way to $370 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 1.0% in 1962.
In 1985, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1959 had the buying
power of $370; 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 1959 to 1985: $100 is worth $370 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1959 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1959-to-1985/