Total money income received in calendar year 1979 by all household members 15 years old and over, tabulated for all households. Household income differs from family income by including income received by (a) all household members 15 years old or over, not just those related to the householder, and by (b) persons living alone and in other nonfamily households. See the definitions of Income In 1979 and Income Type for discussions of sources of income recorded, means, medians, limitations, and comparability to other data bases.

In income tables for households, the lowest income group (e.g., less than $2.500) includes households that were classified as having no 1979 income as defined in the census. Many of these were living on income "in kind," savings, or gifts; were newly created households; or were households in which the sole breadwinner had recently died or left the household. However, many of the households who reported no income probably had some money income which was not recorded in the census. Household income is recorded on public-use microdata in $10 intervals up to $75,000 or down to a net loss of 39,990 or more.

Median and mean household income figures are based on all households, unlike mean or median income figures for persons 15 years old and over, which exclude persons with no income. This item was derived on a sample basis.

The ratio of gross rent to household income in 1979, converted to percentage form, reported for "specified renter-occupied" units, which excludes one-family homes on 10 acres or more. Data are reported as medians and in terms of the number of units in categories such as "less than 20 percent, "20 to 24 percent," "25 to 34 percent," and "35 percent or more" ', and these figures are typically cross-classified with household income. No-cash-rent units and units occupied by households reporting no income or a net loss are assigned to a "not computed" category. This item was computed on a sample basis.