$100 in 1985 is worth $187 in 2006,
because prices increased 87.4% over that period, an average of
3.03% a year.
$100 in 1985 has
the same buying power as
$187
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
87.4%
Average inflation rate
3.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$187
Price difference ($100 base)
$87.36
CPI in 1985
107.6
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1985 → 2006
$187
$100 in 2006 → 1985
$53.37
What happened to prices between 1985 and 2006
Between 1985 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 107.6 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 87.4%, which works out to an average of
3.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1985 bought what
$0.53 buys in 2006: the 1985 dollar
lost 46.6% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 2006 at the same ratio, 1.87: $1,000 becomes
$1,874, and $10,000 becomes $18,736.
Amount in 1985
Value in 2006
$1.00
$1.87
$5.00
$9.37
$10.00
$18.74
$20.00
$37.47
$50.00
$93.68
$100
$187
$500
$937
$1,000
$1,874
$5,000
$9,368
$10,000
$18,736
$100,000
$187,361
$1,000,000
$1,873,606
Inflation by spending category, 1985–2006
Between 1985 and 2006, medical care rose the most, up 196.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 13.8%, against 87.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1985
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1985 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.03%
$187
Medical care
5.31%
$296
Energy
3.20%
$194
Core (all items less food & energy)
3.07%
$189
Housing
3.07%
$189
Food
2.97%
$185
Transportation
2.56%
$170
Apparel
0.62%
$114
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1985: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1985 to 2006
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.97% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.66% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1985–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$187
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1985
$100 from 1985 had already become $142 by
1995, on its way to $187 in 2006; 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 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1985 had the buying
power of $187; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1985 to 2006: $100 is worth $187 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1985-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1985 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1985-to-2006/