The information on family income, expenditure, and savings summarized in this bulletin was obtained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its Survey of Prices Paid by Families in 1945, conducted in the spring of 1946 in Birmingham, Ala., Indianapolis, Ind., and Portland, Oreg. These surveys provide the first data since the 1934-36 period on family expenditures and savings in relation to income for individual cities. Similar data on a Nation-wide basis were obtained for 1941 and 1944. Beginning with these surveys for 1945, the Bureau initiated a series of area studies to be conducted in 3 to 6 cities each year until all 34 large cities included in its Consumers' Price Index are surveyed. These studies are designed as a check on the prices of goods and services and the weighting patterns used in the calculation of the index.

Surveys covering family expenditures for 1946 have been conducted in Milwaukee, Wis., Savannah, Ga., and Scranton, Pa., 1947 family expenditure data have been obtained for Manchester, N. H., Richmond, Va., and Washington, D. C.; and, at the time of this printing, 1948 data are being obtained in Detroit, Mich., Houston, Tex., and Denver, Colo.2

1 See Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletins No. 822, Spending and Saving in Wartime, and No. 838, Wartime Food Purchases; also articles published in the Monthly Labor Review, as follows: October 1945-City Gardens in Wartime; January 1946-Expenditures and Savings of City Families in 1944; February 1946-Food Purchases by City Families in February 1945, and City-Family Composition in Relation to Income, 1941 and 1944; May 1947-Housing and Fuel Expenditures of City Families.

2 Summary data for the 1946 survey are available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For the 1947 summary data and survey procedures see Monthly Labor Review, April 1949-Family Income and Expenditures in 1947 (pp. 389-397) and Procedures Used in 1947 Family Expenditure Surveys (pp. 434-435).

Selection of Cities

In selecting Birmingham, Indianapolis, and Portland as the first of the 34 cities to be surveyed, several factors were considered. The eight largest cities in the group were excluded from the 1945 study for budgetary reasons; Savannah, Ga., and Washington, D. C., were eliminated because there had been no previous expenditure study on an area basis in these two cities that would permit comparisons with an earlier period. The cities chosen, scattered geographically and similar in size, were faced with reconversion problems of varying kinds and degrees of severity.

Factors Affecting Comparison of 1945 and 1934-36 Data

Similar income and expenditure data for Birmingham, Indianapolis, and Portland were obtained in 1934-36.3 Comparison of those data with these in the present report, must take into consideration the differing economic conditions of the two periods. Wartime conditions of rationing and price controls, accompanied by acute shortages of many items of food, clothing, housefurnishings, and durable goods, continued throughout 1945. Incomes and employment also continued at high levels and substantial savings were still being made. In contrast, the years of

For Birmingham data, see Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin No. 640: Money Disbursements of Employed Wage Earners and Clerical Workers in Twelve Cities of the South, 1934-36; for Indianapolis data, see BLS Bulletin No. 636: Money Disbursements of Wage Earners and Clerical Workers in Eight Cities in the East North Central Region, 1934-36; for Portland data, see BLS Bulletin No. 649: Family Income and Expenditure in Four Urban Communities in the Pacific Northwest, 1935-36, vol. II, Family Expenditure.