Family income continued its upward trend in 1967. The median family income of all families in the United States reached $8,000, up by about 6-1/2 percent over the revised 1966 figure of $7,500.¹ However, since consumer prices rose about 3 percent between 1966 and 1967, the gain in real purchasing power was approximately 3-1/2 percent.² Median income of white families was about $8,300 and nonwhite families, $5,100. These findings were obtained from the inquiry on consumer income in the March 1968 Current Population Survey conducted by the Bureau of the Census.

Selected social and economic characteristics stratified by different family income intervals are brought together in tables B, C, and D of this report. Table B presents summary measures of selected characteristics of families by total family income, and table C shows cumulative percent distributions of selected family characteristics by total money income in 1967. Table D presents the proportions of families with certain family characteristics within different income intervals.

__________
¹ Based on revised methodology. The income data in the March 1968 Current Population Survey (CPS) were affected by the changeover to a new computer system and the introduction of improved methods of processing the data. Also, field interviewing procedures were strengthened in the March 1968 CPS. Consequently, data shown in this report are not strictly comparable with prior CPS income data. For example, the percentage change between 1966 and 1967 in median family income based entirely on the revised methodology is 6.3 percent. The corresponding percentage change using the published 1966 median family income figure and the 1967 figure (based on revised methodology) is about 7.2 percent, a difference of about 1 percent. See page 17 of this report.
² See Monthly Labor Review, Vol. 91, No. 11, February 1968, table D-1, page 121.