The urbanized area of Memphis, which included the suburbs of Berclair, Felts Station, Grand Junction, Frayser, and Raleigh, was covered by the survey. A sample of 600 living quarters was selected to represent all families and single consumers in the area.2

This sample yielded reports from 396 consumer units (343 families and 53 single consumers). A "family" was defined as persons who lived together during 1949, pooling their incomes and sharing expenses. A "single consumer" was a person who was financially independent of any family group, living in a separate household or as a roomer in a private home, lodging house, or hotel. Because of differences in living arrangements and spending patterns between families of 2 or more persons and single consumers, data for the two groups have been summarized separately.

Table 1 shows the percentage distribution of families and single consumers by annual net income, size of family, and race.3 Data on income, expenditures, and savings for all families, classified by income and race, are shown in tables 2 and 3; families of wage earners and clerical workers, by income class, in table 4; and for single consumers in table 5. The averages presented are based on the reports obtained from all consumer units in the income class, regardless of whether or not they had expenditures for each particular item.

Because of sampling variability in a small sample, irregularities result which might not occur in a survey of wider coverage. In addition to sampling variability, the data are subject to errors of response and nonreporting. Most of the information given is based on memory rather than on records. Because of the tendency to forget irregular sources of income and some

these families was 3.4 persons, and the average number of employed members was 1.6 persons. In order to meet current expense, which averaged $3,424, to pay for life insurance, and to make gifts and contributions to persons not in the family, they drew on past savings or went into debt to the amount of $63, on the average.

The greatest individual item of expenditure was food (including alcoholic beverages), which averaged $1,068-or nearly 86 cents a person per income, expenditures, and savings, by net income class, 1949 All families: Annual money income after personal taxes!

169

0

190

3,583

8

63

39.5

$549

55.6

100.0

13.4

5.4

2.4

3.4

2.0

1.0

.5

1.5

1 Families are classified by total money income from wages, salaries, selfemployment, receipts from roomers and boarders, rents, interest, dividends, etc., after payment of personal taxes (Federal and State income, poll, and personal property) and occupational expenses.

Family size is based on equivalent persons, with 52 weeks of family membership considered equivalent to 1 person, 26 weeks equivalent to 0.5 person, etc.

Includes expenditures for alcoholic beverages.

Includes rents for tenant-occupied dwellings and for lodging away from home, and current operation expenses of home owners. Excludes principal payments on mortgages on owned homes.

Includes Federal and State income, poll, and personal property taxes. Excludes inheritance and gift taxes

Includes inheritances, large gifts, lump-sum settlements from accident or health insurance policies, and terminal leave payments received upon discharge from the armed forces, which were not considered current income.

Represents the average net difference between reported money receipts and reported money disbursements (1. e. money income, other money receipts, and net deficit minus expenditures for current consumption, gifts and contributions, insurance, and net surplus).

Less than 0.05 percent or too small in amount for inclusion.
See table 1 for complete distribution by income class.

day. Money outlay for clothing averaged $482; for housing, including fuel, light, and refrigeration, $459; for automobile purchase and operation. and other transportation, $406. These items represented more than two-thirds of total current expenditures. Other goods and services, which made up the remaining third were furnishings and equipment, $276; medical care and personal care, $268; recreation and tobacco, $184; household operation, $178; reading and education, $51; and miscellaneous expenses, $52.

Food required the largest dollar expenditure at each income level. Average cost of food ranged from $428, or 52.2 percent of total current con

sumption, for families with incomes of less than $1,000, to $1,915, or 29 percent, for families with incomes from $7,500 to $10,000. At the lowest income levels, expenditures for housing-including fuel, light, and refrigeration-exceeded those for clothing. As income increased, however, expenditures for clothing were greater than housing expenditures.

The importance of the automobile in family living is shown by the average expenditure for automobile purchase and operation. This expenditure was exceeded only by those for food, housing, and clothing.

Negro families in Memphis were larger on the

average than white families, in every income class (table 3). The average number of earners per Negro family was likewise larger.

Negro families spent a higher proportion of their income on food, clothing, personal care, and tobacco, and a smaller percentage on housing, household operation, medical care, automobile operation and recreation, than did white families at the same income level. Dollar expenditures were approximately the same for both white and Negro families in the lowest income groups, but white families spent more as the incomes increased. Both white families and Negro families, at all income levels to the $4,000-$5,000 class, spent, on the average, more than they earned. The average deficit for white families in the $1,000-$2,000

income class was more than six times as large as that for Negro families. This difference grew progressively smaller as income increased, up to the $4,000-$5,000 income class in which the average deficit of Negro families was larger than that of white families. However, the average deficit of families reporting a deficit was larger for white than for Negro families in every income class.

Spending patterns of families of wage earners and clerical workers (table 4) closely paralleled those of all families (table 2). A comparison of the expenditures of families with incomes under $10,000 in the two groups, which were almost identical in average family size, shows that the wage-earner and clerical-worker families had a

All single consumers

Annual money

over

Under $2,000

$2,000

and

over

slightly smaller average income and total dollar expenditure. Their average expenditure for both food and clothing was also smaller, but represented a slightly larger percent of their total spending for current consumption.

The single consumers' expenditures for current consumption (table 5) show substantial variation from spending patterns of families at the same income levels.

Average net income for all single consumers in Memphis was $1,769 after payment of personal taxes averaging $162. With this average income, single consumers spent 27.2 percent of total expenditures on food and alcoholic beverages; in contrast, families in the $1,000-$2,000 income class spent 39.2 percent. Important differences in the spending patterns are shown in almost all other major groups of items. In comparing the expenditure data for single consumers (table 5) with those of families (table 2), it is important to note differences in income distributions. Other characteristics such as age and occupation also differ between the two groups.

Differences in spending patterns between white and Negro single consumers, to a large extent, are due to differences in income level. Almost

87 percent of all single consumers earned less than $3,000. Among Negro single consumers, 95 percent earned less than $2,000, while 70 percent earned less than $1,000. Of all white single consumers in Memphis, 79 percent earned less than $3,000, and 17 percent earned less than $1,000. White single consumers had an average net income of $2,394, after payment of taxes totaling $280. Negro single consumers, after payment of taxes averaging $9, had a net income of $957.

-MARY C. RUARK and GEORGE H. MULCAHY
Division of Prices and Cost of Living

1 In 1945, surveys were made in Birmingham, Ala., Indianapolis, Ind., and Portland, Oreg. (see BLS Bulletin No. 956), in 1946, surveys were made in Savannah, Ga., Scranton, Pa., and Milwaukee, Wis. (mimeographed tables of summary data are available upon request); in 1947, surveys were made in Washington, D. C., Richmond, Va., and Manchester, N. H. (see reprints from the Monthly Labor Review, Nos. R. 1956, R. 1960, R. 1966, R. 1967, and R. 1974); in 1948, surveys were made in Detroit, Mich., Denver, Colo., and Houston, Tex. (see reprint from the Monthly Labor Review, No. R. 1984). Mimeographed tables showing detailed expenditures for various consumption groups for the 1947 and 1948 surveys are available upon request. The sample units were drawn from the BLS dwelling-unit survey made in November-December 1949, which included rooms in lodging houses, hotels, employee quarters of institutions, and new construction. For a detailed description of the sampling design, see The Rent Index: Part 2Methodology of Measurement, Monthly Labor Review, January 1949 (also reprinted as Serial No. R. 1947).

3 In connection with the 1950 decennial census, the Bureau of the Census obtained 1949 gross income and complete information of family characteristics