Yesterday, the U.S. Census Bureau released its latest data on income, earnings, income inequality, and poverty. The report finds that median household income, controlling for inflation, increased by .9 percent in the past year, while the official poverty rate has dropped 0.5 percentage points, from 12.3 to 11.8 percent, which is statistically significant. However, the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) -- which factors in tax credits, government assistance programs, and expenses -- indicates no statistical difference in the amount of Americans living in poverty from 2017 to 2018, nearly half of which are living below 50 percent of the poverty threshold, otherwise known as "deep poverty."
Moreover, the poverty rate among both African-Americans and Hispanics remained more than twice the rate among non-Hispanic whites, which was 8.1 percent.
The report also finds that 2.7 million Americans worked full time all year and lived in poverty, up from 2.4 million in 2017. A factor to consider here is that in the past 40 years, real median hourly wages have remained stagnant. In fact, from 1976 to 2016, real wages for the bottom quintile have shrunk by 1 percent. Since 2007, income in households earning $15,000 or less have actually decreased by 1 percent, while households making $250,000 or more saw a 15.7 percent increase.
Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans without health insurance increased for the first time since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect, from 7.9 to 8.5 percent. The change is mostly due to Medicaid enrollment falling by .7 percent or about 2 million people. Coverage among Hispanic and foreign-born adults fell by three times the national decrease. Some experts suggest that the decrease in health coverage may in part reflect recent efforts to undermine the implementation of the ACA, as well as individuals foregoing Medicaid coverage to avoid being labeled a "public charge."
Other Census data show that refundable tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) lifted 7.9 million Americans out of poverty in 2018, SNAP (food stamps) lifted 3.1 million, the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program lifted 2.9 million, and rental assistance lifted 3 million.
Access the U.S. Census Bureau's findings to utilize in Community Needs Assessments, Planning, and Advocacy efforts below:
The Coalition on Human Needs has helpful information on how to locate data on the Census website and will be cataloging analyses from other national anti-poverty organizations on their
2018 Census and Poverty Data page
.