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The American Energy Consumer
Table 5-14.Percent of Households, by
Number of Cars Owned, and by Income, 1960 and 1973
| Income and car
ownership |
1960 |
1973 |
| Poor |
100 |
100 |
| No car |
65 |
47 |
| One car |
32 |
37 |
| Two or more |
3 |
16 |
| Lower middle |
100 |
100 |
| No car |
26 |
16 |
| One car |
64 |
52 |
| Two or more |
9 |
32 |
| Upper middle |
100 |
100 |
| No car |
8 |
4 |
| One car |
72 |
35 |
| Two or more |
20 |
61 |
| Well off |
100 |
100 |
| No car |
5 |
1 |
| One car |
56 |
21 |
| Two or more |
39 |
78 |
| Source: Prepared by
the Washington Center for Metropolitan Studies from U.S. Bureau of
the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-65, No. 18,
August 11, 1967, "Special Report on Household Ownership and
Purchase of Automobiles and Selected Household Durables:
1960-1967," Table 1, p. 5 and 1973 Washington Center for
Metropolitan Studies' Lifestyles and Energy
Surveys. |
families together constitute two-fifths of all households, but
they consume three-fifths of all the gasoline (Table 5-17). The
poor consume the least gasoline. The poor (some 18 percent of all
households) use only 5 percent of the gasoline, thus the gap
between the poor and other income groups is greater with gasoline
than with either natural gas or electricity.
Gasoline
consumption was estimated for each household by multiplying the
reported miles traveled times the miles per gallon reported for
local driving for each car and summing over all cars. (See Appendix
A2.) This method of estimating gasoline consumption is not as
precise as the methods used for estimating natural gas and
electricity consumption, but it was the best method, given the
resources available, and yields plausible as well as significant
results.
The low
gasoline consumption of the poor and lower middle income households
who have cars reflects both the fewer miles their cars are driven
each year and better gasoline mileage.