[StBernard] New Census Bureau Reports on Household Income, Poverty Rates and Health Insurance Coverage

[Westley Annis]

    Real median household income in the United States climbed between 2005
and 2006, reaching $48,200 from $47,845, according to a report released
today by the U.S. Census Bureau.  Median household income rose slightly for
the second consecutive year, by seven-tenths of a percent, after six years
of decline.  The only statistically significant increase was in white
households. It was the first real increase for white households since 1999. 
 
    Meanwhile, the nation's official poverty rate declined for the first
time this decade, from 12.6 percent in 2005 to 12.3 percent in 2006. There
were 36.5 million people in poverty in 2006, not statistically different
from 2005. The number of people without health insurance coverage rose from
44.8 million (15.3 percent) in 2005 to 47 million (15.8 percent) in 2006.

    These findings are contained in the Income, Poverty, and Health
Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006 report
<http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/p60-233.pdf>  [PDF]. The data were
compiled from information collected in the 2007 Current Population Survey
(CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC). 

    Also released today were income, poverty and earnings data from the 2006
American Community Survey (ACS) for states and metropolitan areas, counties,
cities and American Indian/Alaska Native areas of 65,000 population or more
and all congressional districts. (This year marks the first time that the
population in group quarters such as prisons, college dorms, military
barracks and nursing homes is included, so the 2006 estimates are not fully
comparable to the 2005 estimates.) 

   Tables on Income, Poverty, Health Insurance Coverage, and the 2006
American Community Survey (ACS) can be found from links on the Census Bureau
Press Release of August 28: 

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/0105
83.html
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/010
583.html>