$100 in 1985 is worth $199 in 2009,
because prices increased 99.4% over that period, an average of
2.92% a year.
$100 in 1985 has
the same buying power as
$199
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
99.4%
Average inflation rate
2.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$199
Price difference ($100 base)
$99.38
CPI in 1985
107.6
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1985 → 2009
$199
$100 in 2009 → 1985
$50.15
What happened to prices between 1985 and 2009
Between 1985 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 107.6 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 99.4%, which works out to an average of
2.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1985 bought what
$0.50 buys in 2009: the 1985 dollar
lost 49.8% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 2009 at the same ratio, 1.99: $1,000 becomes
$1,994, and $10,000 becomes $19,938.
Amount in 1985
Value in 2009
$1.00
$1.99
$5.00
$9.97
$10.00
$19.94
$20.00
$39.88
$50.00
$99.69
$100
$199
$500
$997
$1,000
$1,994
$5,000
$9,969
$10,000
$19,938
$100,000
$199,384
$1,000,000
$1,993,838
Inflation by spending category, 1985–2009
Between 1985 and 2009, medical care rose the most, up 230.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 14.4%, against 99.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1985
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1985 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.92%
$199
Medical care
5.11%
$331
Food
3.07%
$206
Housing
2.96%
$202
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.95%
$201
Energy
2.71%
$190
Transportation
2.20%
$168
Apparel
0.56%
$114
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1985: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1985 to 2009
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.97% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.47% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1985–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$199
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1985
$100 from 1985 had already become $149 by
1997, on its way to $199 in 2009; 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 prices fell 0.4% in 2009, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1985 had the buying
power of $199; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1985 to 2009: $100 is worth $199 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1985-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1985 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1985-to-2009/