$100 in 1960 is worth $364 in 1985,
because prices increased 263.5% over that period, an average of
5.30% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$364
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
263.5%
Average inflation rate
5.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$364
Price difference ($100 base)
$264
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1960 → 1985
$364
$100 in 1985 → 1960
$27.51
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1985
Between 1960 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 263.5%, which works out to an average of
5.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1985: the 1960 dollar
lost 72.5% of its purchasing power over
these 25 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1960 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 3.64: $1,000 becomes
$3,635, and $10,000 becomes $36,351.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1985
$1.00
$3.64
$5.00
$18.18
$10.00
$36.35
$20.00
$72.70
$50.00
$182
$100
$364
$500
$1,818
$1,000
$3,635
$5,000
$18,176
$10,000
$36,351
$100,000
$363,514
$1,000,000
$3,635,135
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1985
Between 1960 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 409.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 129.8%, against 263.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.30%
$364
Medical care
6.73%
$509
Energy
6.23%
$454
Transportation
5.22%
$357
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.22%
$357
Food
5.16%
$352
Apparel
3.38%
$230
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.74% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1960, at end
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$131
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$278
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$364
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $141 by
1972, on its way to $364 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 1960 had the buying
power of $364; 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 1960 to 1985: $100 is worth $364 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1985/