The U.S. Census Bureau has announced that real median household income increased by 4.0% between 2022 and 2023. At the same time, the official poverty rate fell 0.4 percentage points, to 11.1%, in 2023.
Meanwhile, 92.0% of the U.S. population had health insurance coverage for all or part of 2023, not statistically different from 2022. An estimated 26.4 million or 8.0% of people did not have health insurance at any point during 2023, according to the 2024 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC).
These findings come from three Census Bureau reports: Income in the United States: 2023; Poverty in the United States: 2023; and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2023. While the official poverty measure is based on the concept of money income, which is pretax and does not include tax credits, the SPM is a post-tax and transfer poverty measure. The SPM provides an alternative way of measuring poverty in the United States and serves as an additional indicator of economic well-being. The Census Bureau has published poverty estimates using the SPM annually since 2011 in collaboration with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Income
Income estimates are based on the concept of money income and do not account for the value of in-kind transfers. They are pretax, unless otherwise indicated.
- Real median household income was $80,610 in 2023, a 4.0% increase from the 2022 estimate of $77,540. This is the first statistically significant annual increase in real median household income since 2019.
- Real median household income increased by 5.4% for White households and by 5.7% for non-Hispanic White households between 2022 and 2023. There was no significant change in median incomes for Black, Asian, and Hispanic households.
- Household income rose throughout the income distribution, increasing 6.7% at the 10th percentile and 4.6% at the 90th percentile.
- Income inequality as measured by the Gini index and income percentile ratios was not significantly different between 2022 and 2023.
Earnings
- Real median earnings for men who worked full-time, year-round increased by 3.0%, and real median earnings increased 1.5% for women who worked full-time, year-round.
Female-to-male earnings ratio
The female-to-male earnings ratio compares the median earnings of women working full-time, year-round to the median earnings of men working full-time, year-round.
- For full-time, year-round workers, the female-to-male earnings ratio in 2023 fell to 82.7% from 84.0% in 2022. This is the first statistically significant annual decrease in the female-to-male earnings ratio since 2003.
Post-Tax Income
Post-tax income is defined as money income net of federal and state taxes and credits, payroll taxes (FICA) and temporary cash payments administered by tax agencies like rebates or stimulus payments. Appendix B of the income report compares household median income and inequality measures based on post-tax income.
- Real median post-tax household income increased by 3.7% between 2022 and 2023, from $66,800 in 2022 to $69,240 in 2023.
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