$100 in 1985 is worth $252 in 2021,
because prices increased 151.8% over that period, an average of
2.60% a year.
$100 in 1985 has
the same buying power as
$252
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
151.8%
Average inflation rate
2.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$252
Price difference ($100 base)
$152
CPI in 1985
107.6
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1985
3.56%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1985 → 2021
$252
$100 in 2021 → 1985
$39.71
What happened to prices between 1985 and 2021
Between 1985 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 107.6 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 151.8%, which works out to an average of
2.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1985 bought what
$0.40 buys in 2021: the 1985 dollar
lost 60.3% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 2021 at the same ratio, 2.52: $1,000 becomes
$2,518, and $10,000 becomes $25,183.
Amount in 1985
Value in 2021
$1.00
$2.52
$5.00
$12.59
$10.00
$25.18
$20.00
$50.37
$50.00
$126
$100
$252
$500
$1,259
$1,000
$2,518
$5,000
$12,592
$10,000
$25,183
$100,000
$251,831
$1,000,000
$2,518,309
Inflation by spending category, 1985–2021
Between 1985 and 2021, medical care rose the most, up 362.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 15.2%, against 151.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1985
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1985 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.60%
$252
Medical care
4.35%
$463
Food
2.72%
$263
Housing
2.70%
$261
Core (all items less food & energy)
2.62%
$254
Energy
2.40%
$235
Transportation
2.17%
$217
Apparel
0.39%
$115
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1985: recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1985 to 2021
Prices climbed fastest in the 2020s, averaging 4.70% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1985–2021 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
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$252
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1985
$100 from 1985 had already become $171 by
2003, on its way to $252 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1985 had the buying
power of $252; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1985 to 2021: $100 is worth $252 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1985-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1985 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1985-to-2021/