Americans all grew richer pretty much across the board a year ago, but they also stayed relatively unequal, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data.
Advertisement
Median incomes picked up in all regions of the United States, across all age groups, and for most ethnic and racial groups, Renwick said.
“Median household income was $56,516 in 2015, an increase in real terms of 5.2 percent from the 2014 median of $53,718”, the report said in its “Highlights” section.
Black households increased by 4.1%.
Also, higher-income households represent a greater number of residents than they did in 2005, and that influences median incomes.
The national poverty rate was 14.7 percent, down 0.8 percent from 2014. He’s repeatedly cited the 2014 income numbers to emphasize broader economic and social problems in the country. The poverty rate for those living in metro areas but outside the principle cities also dropped from 11.8 percent to 10.8 percent, while the rate in principle cities dropped from 18.9 percent to 16.8 percent.
Between 2014 and 2015, poverty rates declined for many different demographic groups.
“We lifted 3.5 million people out of poverty”.
The figures could have implications for this November’s presidential elections, given that median household income is now higher than in 2009 when President Obama took office, but MPR points out that the failure to reach that level until now gave rise to “insurgent” presidential hopefuls like GOP candidate Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
Households “inside principal cities” of these metro areas had the greatest increase in income with a 7.3% change. The growth is even more exaggerated in neighboring Multnomah County, Ore., which saw incomes rise 38 percent during the same time period. The Current Population Survey-based income and poverty report includes comparisons with the previous year and to 2007 (before the last recession); historical tables in the report contain statistics back to 1959.
Recent studies have shown pay disparity narrows considerably when you compare earnings between men and women with the same job. Suffolk’s 2011 median of $88,435 was essentially unchanged in 2015.
Women might be earning more today, but the gap between what they earn and what men expect to earn hasn’t narrowed significantly since 2007.
Or, more accurately: “Only” 3.7 percent.
Some 90.9 percent of people had health insurance for at least part of 2015, up from 89.6 percent in 2014.
The Census data was “superb in nearly every dimension”, said Larry Mishel, president of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, on Tuesday. This means that in 2015, half of all US -based households made more than $56,516 and half made less than that figure.
Americans at all levels of the income ladder saw their financial lives improve a year ago.
Jen Kinney is a freelance writer and documentary photographer.
Advertisement
Another lesson: America needs a new era of economic growth.
