$100 in 1980 is worth $131 in 1985,
because prices increased 30.6% over that period, an average of
5.48% a year.
$100 in 1980 has
the same buying power as
$131
in 1985
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
30.6%
Average inflation rate
5.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$131
Price difference ($100 base)
$30.58
CPI in 1980
82.4
CPI in 1985
107.6
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
$100 in 1980 → 1985
$131
$100 in 1985 → 1980
$76.58
What happened to prices between 1980 and 1985
Between 1980 and 1985, the Consumer Price Index went from 82.4 to 107.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 30.6%, which works out to an average of
5.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1980 bought what
$0.77 buys in 1985: the 1980 dollar
lost 23.4% of its purchasing power over
these 5 years.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
Every 1980 amount converts to 1985 at the same ratio, 1.31: $1,000 becomes
$1,306, and $10,000 becomes $13,058.
Amount in 1980
Value in 1985
$1.00
$1.31
$5.00
$6.53
$10.00
$13.06
$20.00
$26.12
$50.00
$65.29
$100
$131
$500
$653
$1,000
$1,306
$5,000
$6,529
$10,000
$13,058
$100,000
$130,583
$1,000,000
$1,305,825
Inflation by spending category, 1980–1985
Between 1980 and 1985, medical care rose the most, up 51.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 15.5%, against 30.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1980
spending costs in 1985, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1980 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.48%
$131
Medical care
8.67%
$152
Core (all items less food & energy)
6.19%
$135
Housing
5.84%
$133
Transportation
5.07%
$128
Food
4.00%
$122
Energy
3.39%
$118
Apparel
2.93%
$116
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1980: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1980
$100 from 1980 had already become $117 by
1982, on its way to $131 in 1985; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.3% in 1981, and the smallest rise was 3.2% in 1983.
In 1985, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1980 had the buying
power of $131; 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 1980 to 1985: $100 is worth $131 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1985/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1980 to 1985. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1980-to-1985/