The average person's income in 1954 remained about the same as during the previous year. For all persons 14 years old and over receiving any money income, the average (median) income was estimated at $2,300 in each year, according to estimates released today by Robert W. Burgess, Director, Bureau of the Census, Department or Commerce.

The average income of men, which had been rising steadily between 1945 and 1953, leveled off at $3,200 in 1953 and 1954. Between 1952 and 1953 a gain of about $100 had been recorded. The proportion of men whose incomes were $5,000 or over rose from 16 percent in 1952 to about 20 percent in 1953 and 1954. In 1945, at the close of World War II, only 5 percent of the men had incomes that high. Among women, the average (median) income in 1954 was estimated at $1,200, about the same as it had been in the preceding two years. Since the close of World War II, the average income of women has increased by about $250, or 30 percent, while that of men has climbed about $1,400, or 75 percent.

The average income of men in most occupation groups did not fall during 1954, despite the decline in business activity which followed the end of the Korean conflict. Other evidence indicates that wage rate increases in most industries tended to offset the effect of reductions in the extent of full-time year-round work, which accompanied the short-run cutbacks in nonagricultural production and employment.