The following table is given to show the percentage of total in come and individuals classified according to the source of income: United States: Distribution of Income.—The distribution of national income in the United States has been computed for 1918 as follows:— In the year 1918, for which the best information exists, it is estimated that about 86 per cent of those who had earnings had incomes of less than $2,000 and 14 per cent more than $2,000. The former class took 6o per cent of the national income and the latter 4o per cent. It was estimated that the 5 per cent (of those having earnings) who received the largest incomes, had a share in the aggregate of 25 per cent, this share having declined from 33 per cent in 1913 to 1916. The National Bureau of Economic Research, working on rather scanty details, estimated that for 1918 the most prosperous 1 per cent of income receivers took per cent of the total; the most prosperous 20 per cent took 26 per cent of the total, the most prosperous 20 per cent about 47 per cent of the total. Starting from the top of the income scale, in
order to include one per cent of the income receivers, they had to go down to people receiving $8,00O a year. Similarly to include 5 per cent of the income receivers, they had to go down to $3,250; to include 20 per cent down to $750 approximately.
J. Stamp: British Incomes and Property (1916) ; Wealth and Taxable Capacity (2nd ed., 1923) ; Current Problems in Finance and Government (1924) ; Carr Saunders and Caradog Jones: Survey of the Social Structure of the United Kingdom; Sir Leo Chiozza Money: Riches and Poverty (new ed. 1913) ; The Nation's Wealth (1914) ; Reports of the Royal Commission on Income Tax, Select Com mittee on Taxation of War Wealth, Colwyn Committee on Taxation and the National Debt; Stamp and Bowley: The National Income 1924 (1927) ; National Bureau of Economic Research: Income in the United States; Colin Clark, The National Income 1924--3r; Stamp, Methods used in different countries for estimating National Income Oa of Royal Statistical Society, 1934). (J. S.)