$100 in 1985 is worth $209 in 2011,
because prices increased 109.1% over that period, an average of
2.88% a year.
$100 in 1985 has
the same buying power as
$209
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
109.1%
Average inflation rate
2.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$209
Price difference ($100 base)
$109
CPI in 1985
107.6
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1985 → 2011
$209
$100 in 2011 → 1985
$47.84
What happened to prices between 1985 and 2011
Between 1985 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 107.6 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 109.1%, which works out to an average of
2.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1985 bought what
$0.48 buys in 2011: the 1985 dollar
lost 52.2% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 2011 at the same ratio, 2.09: $1,000 becomes
$2,091, and $10,000 becomes $20,905.
Amount in 1985
Value in 2011
$1.00
$2.09
$5.00
$10.45
$10.00
$20.91
$20.00
$41.81
$50.00
$105
$100
$209
$500
$1,045
$1,000
$2,091
$5,000
$10,453
$10,000
$20,905
$100,000
$209,051
$1,000,000
$2,090,511
Inflation by spending category, 1985–2011
Between 1985 and 2011, medical care rose the most, up 252.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 16.3%, against 109.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1985
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1985 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.88%
$209
Medical care
4.97%
$353
Energy
3.43%
$240
Food
3.00%
$216
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.82%
$206
Housing
2.77%
$203
Transportation
2.69%
$200
Apparel
0.58%
$116
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1985: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1985 to 2011
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.97% a year, and slowest in the 2000s (2.39% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1985–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$203
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$209
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1985
$100 from 1985 had already become $151 by
1998, on its way to $209 in 2011; 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 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1985 had the buying
power of $209; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1985 to 2011: $100 is worth $209 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1985-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1985 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1985-to-2011/