Between 2014 and 2015, for the first time since before the 2008 recession, median household income increased – by 5.2 percent, up to $56,516 in 2015 from $53,718 the year before.
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Seventeen years ago, near the close of the 20th century, the typical American household had a higher income than it did in 2015.
Household incomes in the USA jumped by a record amount in 2015, which also saw the biggest drop in poverty levels recorded since 1999.
“It’s really a broad, broad increase in median incomes, and one of the largest increases. that we’ve ever had”, said Trudi Renwick, assistant division chief at Census.
Here is a snapshot of inflation-adjusted median household income over the years in the United States (in 2015 dollars).
The bureau also reported on Tuesday that the number of people in the U.S. without health insurance fell further previous year, to 9.1 per cent from 10.4 per cent in 2014.
The White House noted that Hispanics saw the largest gain in median income at 6.1 percent, while seeing a 2.2 percent drop in poverty.
Since the financial crisis of 2008, the number of people living in poverty in the U.S. has increased by more than 3.3 million.
Chris Christopher, head of consumer economics for IHS Global Insight, said he expected incomes to continue to gain ground through 2017 with higher employment and modest inflation.
Through the end of 2015, employers had added about 12.5 million jobs, and the unemployment rate was almost cut in half, to 5.0% from 9.5%. However, income gains in the South were just 2.9 percent, the weakest of any of the four regions in the Census Bureau’s report.
Furman continued and stated the significant aspects in the new report where the growth rates because he has read the last 21 and confessed never to have seen numbers similarly to what the September report shows. The actual number of non-metro residents in poverty did drop, from 8.2 million in 2014 to 7.4 million in 2015.
Meanwhile, the poverty rate fell 13.5 per cent – the largest percentage point in more than a decade.
The share of Americans who lack health insurance continued a years-long decline, falling 1.3 percentage points, to 9.1 percent.
“For low-income families that we work with”, said Babcock, “their own earnings are not going up fast enough to make headway in that 97 hours a week they have to work to pay the rent on an apartment”. In 2009, the median income was $42,022, then leveled to $40,000 or $41,000 until a slight increase in 2014. The state’s 2015 poverty rate was 15.4 percent.
Thus far, Republican Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and his opposition to trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) appeals to Americans who feel economically insecure. Overall, the top 5% of households saw their incomes increase by 0.9%.
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These findings are contained in two reports: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2015; and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2015. Social Security is credited with lifting 26.6 million people (and 17.1 million seniors) above the poverty level.
