U.S. Household Incomes Surged 5.2% in 2015, First Gain Since 2007
Census Bureau reports the largest annual gain since it began releasing such data in 1967
Nick Timiraos and
Janet Adamy
Updated Sept. 13, 2016 11:29 a.m. ET
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Incomes in the U.S. surged in 2015, delivering the first increase for family households in eight years.
The median annual household income—the level at which half are above and half are below—rose 5.2% from a year earlier, or $2,800, after adjusting for inflation, to $56,500, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.
The boost leaves household incomes around 1.6% below the 2007 level, before the last recession began. But the 5.2% annual gain is the largest such increase since the Census Bureau began releasing such data in 1967.
The official poverty rate in 2015 was 13.5%, down 1.2 percentage points from 14.8% in 2014, the report added.
The latest figures show how several years of robust growth in employment have finally helped a broad swath of the nation improve living standards—after several years of either flat incomes or sustained declines.
The gains were spread broadly, with nearly all age groups, household types, regions and racial or ethnic groups seeing increases. One exception: Incomes didn't rise for households living outside of metropolitan areas.
Tuesday’s numbers hint at how minimum-wage increases by states and local governments in recent years could be lifting household incomes.
The largest increases in incomes were for households in the bottom fifth of all earners, while incomes declined slightly for households in the top fifth. The ratio between incomes for households at the 90th percentile and 10th percentile declined last year.
Among all full-time, year-round workers, women saw much larger earnings gains than men, posting an annual increase of 2.7%, compared with 1.5% for men. The increases narrowed the pay gap between women and men to the lowest level on record.
Noncitizens, who tend to earn less and have higher workforce participation rates than native-born workers, saw some of the largest increases in incomes last year. Median incomes of noncitizen households rose 10.5% to $45,100, while those of native-born households rose 4.4% to $57,200.
Meanwhile, the report showed fewer people lacked health insurance in 2015 than the previous year, largely because of expanded access through the Affordable Care Act. The Census Bureau found that 29 million people, or 9.1% of Americans, lacked health insurance in 2015. That is down from 33 million people, or 10.4% of the population, in 2014.
The largest increases in insurance coverage came from those buying private insurance as opposed to government plans. Hispanics saw the largest drop in the uninsured rate of any ethnic group, though they remain more likely to lack coverage than whites, blacks or Asians. States that opted not to expand Medicaid under the 2010 health law generally showed greater rates of people lacking health insurance, with Texas having the highest uninsured rate at 17.1%.
