$100 in 1985 is worth $182 in 2005,
because prices increased 81.5% over that period, an average of
3.03% a year.
$100 in 1985 has
the same buying power as
$182
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
81.5%
Average inflation rate
3.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$182
Price difference ($100 base)
$81.51
CPI in 1985
107.6
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1985 → 2005
$182
$100 in 2005 → 1985
$55.09
What happened to prices between 1985 and 2005
Between 1985 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 107.6 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 81.5%, which works out to an average of
3.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1985 bought what
$0.55 buys in 2005: the 1985 dollar
lost 44.9% of its purchasing power over
these 20 years.
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.
Every 1985 amount converts to 2005 at the same ratio, 1.82: $1,000 becomes
$1,815, and $10,000 becomes $18,151.
Amount in 1985
Value in 2005
$1.00
$1.82
$5.00
$9.08
$10.00
$18.15
$20.00
$36.30
$50.00
$90.75
$100
$182
$500
$908
$1,000
$1,815
$5,000
$9,075
$10,000
$18,151
$100,000
$181,506
$1,000,000
$1,815,056
Inflation by spending category, 1985–2005
Between 1985 and 2005, medical care rose the most, up 184.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 13.8%, against 81.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1985
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1985 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.03%
$182
Medical care
5.37%
$285
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.10%
$184
Housing
3.03%
$182
Food
3.00%
$181
Energy
2.82%
$174
Transportation
2.49%
$163
Apparel
0.65%
$114
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1985: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1985 to 2005
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.97% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.55% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1985–2005 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1985, at end
1985–1990
3.97%
21.5%
$121
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$160
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$182
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1985
$100 from 1985 had already become $142 by
1995, on its way to $182 in 2005; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.4% in 1990, and the smallest rise was 1.6% in 1998.
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1985 had the buying
power of $182; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1985 to 2005: $100 is worth $182 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1985-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1985 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1985-to-2005/