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BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL 



detail or cumulative basis. This law does not hold for the lower 

 income levels which may be best represented by a curve of approxi- 

 mately hyperbolic form, as shown in Fig. 6. The same income data 

 are shown plotted on logarithmic probability paper in an insert on 



°- 100 200 500 1000 2000 5000 tOOOd 



Dollars Annual Income 



Distribution of 

 PERSONAL INCOMES IN THE U.S. 

 1917 



Based on Preliminary Data from the 

 National Bureau of Economic Resrarch 



too 200 500 1000 2000 5000 10000 20000 50 000 100000 



Dollars Annual Income 



Fig. 6 



Fig. 6. From the form of this curve it may be concluded that the 

 distribution of the lower two-thirds of both incomes and rents is 

 similar but that the spread of the higher incomes is much greater 

 than the spread of the corresponding rents. 



