CIC News: Income, Insurance and Poverty

A program of the Community Service Council

In This Issue

Income, Insurance, and Poverty

Issue: #470

April 10, 2017

The Census Information Center of Eastern Oklahoma, a program of the Community Service Council, provides access to data generated from the US Census Bureau and through the Community Service Council's Data and Systems Development Task Forces.

Income, Insurance, and Poverty

The U.S. Census Bureau announced that real median household income increased by 5.2 percent between 2014 and 2015 while the official poverty rate decreased 1.2 percentage points. At the same time, the percentage of people without health insurance coverage decreased.

Median household income in the United States in 2015 was $56,516, an increase in real terms of 5.2 percent from the 2014 median income of $53,718. This is the first annual increase in median household income since 2007, the year before the most recent recession.

The nation's official poverty rate in 2015 was 13.5 percent, with 43.1 million people in poverty, 3.5 million fewer than in 2014. The 1.2 percentage point decrease in the poverty rate from 2014 to 2015 represents the largest annual percentage point drop in poverty since 1999.

The percentage of people without health insurance coverage for the entire 2015 calendar year was 9.1 percent, down from 10.4 percent in 2014. The number of people without health insurance declined to 29.0 million from 33.0 million over the period.

These findings are contained in two reports:

Income and Poverty in the United States: 2015

Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2015

Click here for full report.

Until Next Week,

Jan Figart

Census Information Center

Click here for one QRC code resource.

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