Average (median) family income in the United States was estimated at $6,000 in 1962, a gain of about $220, or 4 percent, over the previous year, according to estimates released today by the Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce. For persons, the median income was $2,800; this was $100, or 4 percent, higher than a year earlier. 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

An estimated 9 1/2 million families, or 20 percent of the 47 million families in the Nation, received money incomes under $3,000 in 1962. The number of families in this income range declined by approximately one-half million from the previous year. About 9 million, or 19 percent, received incomes between $3,000 and $5,000 last year; and 10 1/2 million, or 22 percent, had incomes between $5,000 and $7,000. The remaining 18 million families, or 39 percent, are estimated to have received incomes of $7,000 or more, representing an increase of about 1 million families over 1961.

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