For the second year in a row, the income of American families failed to make headway against inflation according to results of the March 1982 Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted by the Bureau of the Census. In 1981, the median family income was $22,390, an increase of 6.5 percent before adjusting for the change in consumer prices. After adjusting for a 10.4-percent increase in consumer prices between 1980 and 1981, however, median family income decreased by 3.5 percent.¹ This decline was somewhat smaller than the decline in real median family income of 5.5 percent which occurred between 1979 and 1980.

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¹ Changes in real income refer to comparisons after adjusting for inflation. The percentage change in prices between 1980 and 1981 was computed by dividing the annual average Consumer Price Index (CPI) for 1981 by the annual average value of the CPI for 1980. Research has shown that, in recent years, the treatment of home prices and mortgage interest costs in the calculation of the CPI tended to overstate the increase in prices experienced by the average consumer. See table A-1 of appendix A for CPI's from 1947 to 1981.