Interactive · Debasement Basement Tools
What was a dollar worth the year you were born?
A dollar from 1985 buys about 32 cents of a 2026 dollar by the Consumer Price Index, and about 7.9 cents measured against gold.
Outside the US? The figures above are for the US dollar and the US Consumer Price Index. Pick your currency below and the calculator switches to your own country’s official price index: the UK’s ONS, Statistics Canada, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Stats NZ, Eurostat (Ireland’s CSO for Irish readers), Switzerland’s FSO, Mexico’s INEGI or Stats SA. Gold is priced in your currency too.
By each country’s own official index, money from 1985 keeps this much of its buying power in 2026 (estimated): a pound 31p, a Canadian dollar 37¢, an Australian dollar 27¢, a New Zealand dollar 28¢ and a Swiss franc 63¢.
Or a round number
Or pick a vintage
Born in 1985 · 41 years of monetary policy
The dollar you were born under buys 32¢ of a dollar now. Ask the tooth fairy: she has had to raise her rates just to keep the kids impressed.
$10,000 in 1985 bought 31.55 oz of gold. The same $10,000 today buys 2.50 oz.
Priced in gold, the same dollar holds 7.9¢ — better, but not by enough to relax. The price index and gold disagree by a factor of 4.1, like the scale at home and the scale at the doctor’s office. Guess which one you tell people about.
Put a real number on it and the arithmetic gets louder. Matching what $10,000 bought in 1985 costs about $31,078 today — while the 31.55 ounces of gold that same $10,000 would have bought are worth about $126,085 now. Enter your own year and your own amount below and every figure on this page redraws.
Nobody hands you a receipt for inflation. It arrives as a slightly smaller chocolate bar, a slightly larger rent check, a slightly longer wait before the holiday. Pick the year you turned up and we will total the receipt for you — measured two ways, because the government's measure and the market's measure disagree, and the distance between them is the entire subject of this publication.
To buy in 2026 what $10,000 bought in 1985
$31,078
by the Consumer Price Index
That same $10,000, still $10,000
$3,218
is what it now buys, in 1985 money
The 31.55 oz of gold it bought in 1985
$126,085
at today’s gold price
That works out to 2.8% a year, every year, compounding quietly for 41 years. Small enough that nobody marches about it; persistent enough that nobody escapes it.
How this is calculated
- 1. The Consumer Price Index stood at 107.6 in 1985 and 334.4 today. Prices are therefore 3.11 times higher, so a dollar from then holds 32¢ of today's buying power.
- 2. Gold averaged $317.00 an ounce in 1985 and trades at $3,996.90 now. Priced in metal, the same dollar holds 7.9¢.
- 3. Your amount is those same two ratios, applied. $10,000 × 3.11 is $31,078. And $10,000 ÷ $317.00 is 31.55 oz of gold, which at $3,996.90 an ounce is $126,085.
- 4. Neither figure is a forecast, an opinion or a model. They are two published numbers divided by two other published numbers.
- —
CPI-U annual averages, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, which republishes the Bureau of Labor Statistics series
CUUR0000SA0 (all items, US city average); 2026 is an estimate based on
second-quarter data. Gold is the annual average to 2025 and the spot price for 2026, so the
most recent year is a single day rather than a year — it is labeled above.
Annual gold averages from 1970 are from metalcharts.org; today’s price is
indicative spot from gold-api.com when it loads, and the stored
price of $3,996.90 an ounce from October 24, 2026 when it does not. Results use whole-year
averages, so they will differ by a few cents from a month-to-month calculator.
Data updated October 2026.
One caveat for your year.
Before 1968 the dollar price of gold was set by statute, not by a market. For years in the
fixed era the gold column measures what the law said, and the law said the same thing for
decades until the day it didn't.
Compare any two years
Pick a year to start from and a year to compare with. It works backward too: put the later year first to see what today’s money would have been worth then.
$100.00 in 1985 had the same buying power as $310.78 in 2026 (estimated), by the Consumer Price Index.
In gold: $100.00 bought 0.3155 oz in 1985, worth $1,260.85 at today’s price.
Same cart of groceries, about three times the receipt. The cart did not get any bigger.
The value of a dollar by year, 1913 to today
What one dollar from each year is worth now, two ways: by the Consumer Price Index, and as the gold it bought then, priced today. Before 1971 the dollar price of gold was set by law, so the gold column for those years measures a statute.
Show all 113 years
| Year | $1 then, in 2026 dollars (CPI) | Gold $1 bought (oz) | That gold today |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $1.04 | 0.000291 | $1.16 |
| 2024 | $1.07 | 0.000419 | $1.68 |
| 2023 | $1.10 | 0.000515 | $2.06 |
| 2022 | $1.14 | 0.000556 | $2.22 |
| 2021 | $1.23 | 0.000556 | $2.22 |
| 2020 | $1.29 | 0.000565 | $2.26 |
| 2019 | $1.31 | 0.000718 | $2.87 |
| 2018 | $1.33 | 0.000788 | $3.15 |
| 2017 | $1.36 | 0.000796 | $3.18 |
| 2016 | $1.39 | 0.000799 | $3.19 |
| 2015 | $1.41 | 0.000862 | $3.45 |
| 2014 | $1.41 | 0.000790 | $3.16 |
| 2013 | $1.44 | 0.000709 | $2.83 |
| 2012 | $1.46 | 0.000599 | $2.39 |
| 2011 | $1.49 | 0.000636 | $2.54 |
| 2010 | $1.53 | 0.000816 | $3.26 |
| 2009 | $1.56 | 0.00103 | $4.11 |
| 2008 | $1.55 | 0.00115 | $4.58 |
| 2007 | $1.61 | 0.00144 | $5.75 |
| 2006 | $1.66 | 0.00166 | $6.62 |
| 2005 | $1.71 | 0.00225 | $9.00 |
| 2004 | $1.77 | 0.00244 | $9.77 |
| 2003 | $1.82 | 0.00275 | $11.01 |
| 2002 | $1.86 | 0.00323 | $12.89 |
| 2001 | $1.89 | 0.00369 | $14.75 |
| 2000 | $1.94 | 0.00358 | $14.33 |
| 1999 | $2.01 | 0.00358 | $14.33 |
| 1998 | $2.05 | 0.00340 | $13.59 |
| 1997 | $2.08 | 0.00302 | $12.08 |
| 1996 | $2.13 | 0.00258 | $10.30 |
| 1995 | $2.19 | 0.00260 | $10.41 |
| 1994 | $2.26 | 0.00260 | $10.41 |
| 1993 | $2.31 | 0.00278 | $11.10 |
| 1992 | $2.38 | 0.00291 | $11.62 |
| 1991 | $2.46 | 0.00276 | $11.04 |
| 1990 | $2.56 | 0.00261 | $10.44 |
| 1989 | $2.70 | 0.00262 | $10.49 |
| 1988 | $2.83 | 0.00229 | $9.15 |
| 1987 | $2.94 | 0.00224 | $8.94 |
| 1986 | $3.05 | 0.00272 | $10.86 |
| 1985 | $3.11 | 0.00315 | $12.61 |
| 1984 | $3.22 | 0.00277 | $11.07 |
| 1983 | $3.36 | 0.00236 | $9.43 |
| 1982 | $3.47 | 0.00266 | $10.63 |
| 1981 | $3.68 | 0.00217 | $8.69 |
| 1980 | $4.06 | 0.00163 | $6.50 |
| 1979 | $4.61 | 0.00326 | $13.02 |
| 1978 | $5.13 | 0.00518 | $20.71 |
| 1977 | $5.52 | 0.00676 | $27.01 |
| 1976 | $5.88 | 0.00800 | $31.98 |
| 1975 | $6.22 | 0.00621 | $24.83 |
| 1974 | $6.78 | 0.00629 | $25.14 |
| 1973 | $7.53 | 0.0103 | $41.21 |
| 1972 | $8.00 | 0.0172 | $68.91 |
| 1971 | $8.26 | 0.0244 | $97.49 |
| 1970 | $8.62 | 0.0278 | $111.03 |
| 1969 | $9.11 | 0.0243 | $97.27 |
| 1968 | $9.61 | 0.0258 | $103.31 |
| 1967 | $10.01 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1966 | $10.29 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1965 | $10.62 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1964 | $10.79 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1963 | $10.93 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1962 | $11.04 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1961 | $11.18 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1960 | $11.30 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1959 | $11.45 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1958 | $11.57 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1957 | $11.90 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1956 | $12.29 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1955 | $12.48 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1954 | $12.43 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1953 | $12.48 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1952 | $12.57 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1951 | $12.86 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1950 | $13.88 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1949 | $14.05 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1948 | $13.93 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1947 | $15.00 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1946 | $17.15 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1945 | $18.58 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1944 | $19.00 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1943 | $19.33 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1942 | $20.52 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1941 | $22.75 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1940 | $23.89 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1939 | $24.06 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1938 | $23.72 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1937 | $23.22 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1936 | $24.06 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1935 | $24.41 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1934 | $24.96 | 0.0286 | $114.20 |
| 1933 | $25.92 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1932 | $24.59 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1931 | $22.00 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1930 | $20.02 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1929 | $19.44 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1928 | $19.44 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1927 | $19.22 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1926 | $18.89 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1925 | $19.11 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1924 | $19.56 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1923 | $19.56 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1922 | $19.90 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1921 | $18.68 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1920 | $16.72 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1919 | $19.33 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1918 | $22.29 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1917 | $26.12 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1916 | $30.68 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1915 | $33.11 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1914 | $33.44 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
| 1913 | $33.78 | 0.0484 | $193.37 |
Why two answers, and why they differ
Every inflation calculator on the internet gives you the first number. It is a fine number. It is compiled carefully, published on a schedule, and it answers a specific question: what has happened to the price of a basket of goods that a statistical agency has decided resembles your life.
The basket is the catch. Its contents are substituted when something gets expensive, and adjusted when something gets better. Both adjustments are defensible in isolation. Both point the same direction. A measure that is revised only downward is not a conspiracy — it is an incentive, which is worse, because incentives never need a meeting.
Gold has no committee. It is inert, it pays nothing, it does not grow, and nobody can issue more of it by resolution. That makes it useless as an investment thesis and almost perfect as a ruler. When a currency is measured against something that cannot be printed, what you are reading is not the price of the metal going up. It is the length of the ruler staying still while everything else is quietly restated.
Hold both numbers at once. The index tells you the story the money tells about itself. The metal tells you the story the market tells about the money. They have been drifting apart, in the same direction, for longer than most people reading this have been alive — which, conveniently, is exactly what you just measured.
Worked examples
- $100 in 1913, the year the Federal Reserve was created, buys what about $3,378 buys today. As gold at the legal $20.67 an ounce, it was 4.84 oz, worth about $19,337 now.
- $1 in 1971, the year the gold window closed, is about $8.26 today by the CPI. The 0.024 oz of gold it bought is worth about $97.49.
- A $20 gold piece in 1933 was $20 of money and 0.97 oz of gold. The $20 is worth about $518 today by the CPI; the gold is worth about $3,867.
- $1,000 in 1980 is about $4,058 today by the CPI, and the 1.63 oz of gold it bought is worth about $6,499. Gold averaged $615 that year, a spike, so this one flatters the dollar.
CPI-U annual averages, with the 2026 estimate. Gold valued at the stored spot price of $3,996.90 an ounce, October 24, 2026; the calculator above uses the live price when it loads.
Common questions
- What was a dollar worth the year I was born?
- Divide today's Consumer Price Index by the index in your birth year. A dollar from 1985 buys about 32 cents of a 2026 dollar. Measured against gold rather than a basket of goods, the same dollar holds about 7.9 cents. This tool shows both answers for any year from 1913 on.
- What is $10,000 from 1985 worth today?
- It depends which question you are asking, and the three answers are very far apart. To buy what $10,000 bought in 1985 you would need about $31,078 today. The $10,000 itself, left in cash, now buys roughly what $3,218 bought in 1985. And the 31.55 ounces of gold that $10,000 would have purchased are worth about $126,085.
- Why does the gold answer differ so much from the inflation answer?
- They measure different things. The Consumer Price Index tracks a basket of goods whose contents are substituted and quality-adjusted over time. Gold is a fixed quantity that nobody can issue more of, so pricing the dollar in gold takes the basket out of the question. Between 1985 and 2026 the two measures differ by a factor of about 4.1.
- Is gold a better measure of inflation than the CPI?
- Neither replaces the other. The CPI answers what a defined basket of goods costs, which is the number that matters for wages, benefits and rent. Gold answers what the currency is worth against something that cannot be printed, which is the number that matters for savings held over decades. Gold is also far more volatile year to year, so a single start date can flatter or punish the comparison. This tool flags the years where that happens.
- How much is $1 from 1970 worth today?
- About $8.62. By the Consumer Price Index, 2026 prices so far are 8.62 times their 1970 average (334.4 against 38.8), so a 1970 dollar buys what $8.62 buys now. Put the other way, today's dollar buys about 12 cents of 1970 goods. Change the year in the calculator above for any other.
- How much value has the dollar lost since 1913?
- About 97% by the Consumer Price Index, which averaged 9.9 in 1913, the year the Federal Reserve was created, against about 334.4 in 2026 so far. A 1913 dollar now buys roughly 3 cents of goods. Measured in gold, which was $20.67 an ounce in 1913, the loss is about 99.5% at spot on October 24, 2026.
- What does purchasing power mean?
- Purchasing power is how much a unit of money can buy. When prices rise, each dollar buys less, so its purchasing power falls even though the bill in your wallet still says one dollar. Inflation calculators measure the change with a price index such as the CPI. This one also measures it against gold.
- How is the value of a dollar by year calculated?
- Divide the price index for the later year by the index for the earlier year, then multiply by the dollar amount. This calculator uses annual averages of the CPI-U, as published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, and the annual average gold price for the gold column, with the current spot price for 2026.
- Why do inflation calculators give slightly different answers?
- Mostly because they compare different periods. Some use one month's index against another month's; this one uses whole-year averages, and the latest year is an estimate until the year ends. Differences of a few cents on the dollar are normal. Large differences usually mean a calculator is using a different index altogether.
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