$100 in 1985 is worth $241 in 2020,
because prices increased 140.5% over that period, an average of
2.54% a year.
$100 in 1985 has
the same buying power as
$241
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
140.5%
Average inflation rate
2.54% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$241
Price difference ($100 base)
$141
CPI in 1985
107.6
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1985 → 2020
$241
$100 in 2020 → 1985
$41.57
What happened to prices between 1985 and 2020
Between 1985 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 107.6 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 140.5%, which works out to an average of
2.54% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1985 bought what
$0.42 buys in 2020: the 1985 dollar
lost 58.4% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 2020 at the same ratio, 2.41: $1,000 becomes
$2,405, and $10,000 becomes $24,053.
Amount in 1985
Value in 2020
$1.00
$2.41
$5.00
$12.03
$10.00
$24.05
$20.00
$48.11
$50.00
$120
$100
$241
$500
$1,203
$1,000
$2,405
$5,000
$12,027
$10,000
$24,053
$100,000
$240,531
$1,000,000
$2,405,307
Inflation by spending category, 1985–2020
Between 1985 and 2020, medical care rose the most, up 357.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 12.5%, against 140.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1985
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1985 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.54%
$241
Medical care
4.44%
$457
Food
2.69%
$253
Housing
2.68%
$252
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.60%
$245
Energy
1.91%
$194
Transportation
1.84%
$189
Apparel
0.34%
$112
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1985: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1985 to 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 3.97% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1985–2020 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$241
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1985
$100 from 1985 had already become $171 by
2003, on its way to $241 in 2020; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1985 had the buying
power of $241; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1985 to 2020: $100 is worth $241 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1985-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1985 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1985-to-2020/