A newly released report from the Census Bureau presents data collected in 2009 related to income, poverty and health insurance coverage.  The findings reflect the impact of the current recession on American households in 2008.  Main findings include:

• Median household income declined 3.6% in 2008, following three years of income increases.  Median income declined in each racial/ethnic category, with the median income in white households dropping 2.6%, compared to 2.8% in black households, 4.4% in Asian households and 5.6% in Hispanic households.  Decline in household income was observed in the South, Midwest, and West regions, but not in the Northeast.  Median household income declined by 3.7% in metropolitan areas, and 3.3% in non-metropolitan areas.

  

 
 

  

• The poverty rate increased to 13.2%, up from 12.5% in 2007.  The poverty rate was 8.6% for non-Hispanic Whites, 11.8% for Asians, 23.2% for Hispanics, and 24.7% for Blacks. The poverty rate increased from 18% to 19% among children under age 18 and increased from 10.9% to 11.7% for adults age 18 to 64.  The poverty rate was unchanged among adults age 65 and over.  While children made up 24.6% of the population in 2008, they accounted for 35.3% of the population in poverty and 36.8% of those below 50% of the poverty line.

 
 

• While the percentage of Americans uninsured remained the same from 2007 to 2008, the number of uninsured individuals was up from 253.4 million to 255.1 million in 2008.  The number of people with private health insurance dropped from 202 million in 2007 to 201 million in 2008, while the number of people covered by government health insurance increased from 83 million to 87.4 million.  The uninsured rate dropped among children from 11% in 2007 to 9.9% in 2008.

  http://www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p60-236.pdf