The median income of all families in 1964 was about $6,600, This was about $320, or 5 percent, higher than in 1963, 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

The postwar period has been characterized by a significant rise in family income. Since 1947, median family income in current dollars has more than doubled (from about $3,000 in 1947 to about $6,600 in 1964). A good part of this advance reflected rises in consumer prices, but there was also a substantial increase in real purchasing power. In terms of constant (1964) dollars, median family income increased from about $4,200 in 1947 to $6,600 in 1964, a rise of about $140 a year.

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¹ See Monthly Labor Review, February 1965, Vol. 88, No. 2, table D-1, p. 242.