For the country as a whole, the average (median) income of families in 1962 was about $6,000, according to estimates released today by the Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce. This average was about $220, or 4 percent, higher than in 1961, reflecting the improvement in the economy throughout 1962. Since consumer prices rose approximately 1 percent during this period, not all of the increase in the average family income represented a net gain in real income.¹

Average family income in current dollars has doubled in the postwar period (from $3,000 in 1947 to $6,000 in 1962). However, consumer prices have risen substantially during this period so that only about three-fifths of the increase in current-dollar incomes represented an increase in real income. In terms of constant (1962) dollars, average family income increased from $4,100 in 1947 to about $6,000 in 1962, a rise that averaged approximately $120 a year over this period.

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¹ See Monthly Labor Review, March 1963, Vol. 86, No. 3, table D-1, page 358.