$100 in 1967 is worth $322 in 1985,
because prices increased 222.2% over that period, an average of
6.72% a year.
$100 in 1967 has
the same buying power as
$322
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
222.2%
Average inflation rate
6.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$322
Price difference ($100 base)
$222
CPI in 1967
33.4
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1967 → 1985
$322
$100 in 1985 → 1967
$31.04
What happened to prices between 1967 and 1985
Between 1967 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 33.4 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 222.2%, which works out to an average of
6.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1967 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1985: the 1967 dollar
lost 69.0% of its purchasing power over
these 18 years.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1967, up from 1966’s 2.9% as
Vietnam War spending kept climbing alongside expanding Great Society
programs, a combination of rising military and domestic outlays that
economists later blamed for entrenching inflation through the rest of the
decade. The minimum wage rose that February 1, to $1.40 an hour, the
first step of a phased increase Congress had set the year before. Urban
unrest reached a peak that July, when days of rioting left 26 dead in
Newark and 43 dead in Detroit, the deadliest of that summer’s roughly 160
disturbances; Johnson responded by forming the Kerner Commission to study
the causes of the unrest. The Supreme Court gained its first Black
justice that year too: the Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall on August
30, and he was sworn in that October after serving as U.S. Solicitor
General and, before that, as the lead attorney in Brown v. Board of
Education. Consumer prices finished 1967 237.4% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents.
Every 1967 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 3.22: $1,000 becomes
$3,222, and $10,000 becomes $32,216.
Amount in 1967
Value in 1985
$1.00
$3.22
$5.00
$16.11
$10.00
$32.22
$20.00
$64.43
$50.00
$161
$100
$322
$500
$1,611
$1,000
$3,222
$5,000
$16,108
$10,000
$32,216
$100,000
$322,156
$1,000,000
$3,221,557
Inflation by spending category, 1967–1985
Between 1967 and 1985, energy rose the most, up 326.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 105.9%, against 222.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1967
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1967 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.72%
$322
Energy
8.40%
$427
Medical care
8.04%
$402
Housing
7.20%
$350
Transportation
6.67%
$320
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.57%
$314
Food
6.48%
$310
Apparel
4.09%
$206
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1967: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1967 to 1985
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (5.12% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1967–1985 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1967, at end
1967–1970
5.12%
16.2%
$116
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$247
1980–1985
5.48%
30.6%
$322
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1967
$100 from 1967 had already become $170 by
1976, on its way to $322 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 3.2% in 1972.
In 1985, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1967 had the buying
power of $322; 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 1967 to 1985: $100 is worth $322 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1967 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1967-to-1985/