Value of $100 in 1985, adjusted to 2026

What happened to prices between 1985 and 2026

Between 1985 and 2026, the Consumer Price Index went from 107.6 to 332.243. Cumulatively, prices increased 208.8%, which works out to an average of 2.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1985 bought what $0.32 buys in 2026: the 1985 dollar lost 67.6% of its purchasing power over these 41 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.

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The destination year: 2026

In 2026, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1985 had the buying power of $309; the year's average CPI of 332.243 is the level behind every 2026 figure on this page.