The U.S. Census Bureau today announced that real median household income increased by 4.0% between 2022 and 2023. This is the first statistically significant annual increase in real median household income since 2019. The official poverty rate fell 0.4 percentage points, to 11.1%, in 2023. The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) rate in 2023 was 12.9%, an increase of 0.5 percentage points from 2022. 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), also not statistically different from the previous year.
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).
For consistency with past reports, the income estimates in the “Income in the United States: 2023” report are based on the concept of money income. Appendix B of the income report provides post-tax estimates of median household income and income inequality metrics.
All three reports are based on data from the CPS ASEC. The Current Population Survey (CPS), sponsored jointly by the Census Bureau and BLS, is conducted every month and is the primary source of labor force statistics for the U.S. population. It is used to calculate monthly unemployment rate estimates. Supplements are added in most months. The CPS ASEC — conducted in February, March and April — is designed to provide annual, national estimates of income, poverty and health insurance estimates, collecting information about job status, income and health insurance coverage during the prior calendar year.
Although the 2024 ASEC was collected using standard procedures, response rates are still lower than they were before the pandemic. The response rate for the CPS basic household survey declined from 68.9% in March 2023 to 67.2% in March 2024.
Since the response rates remain below pre-pandemic levels, which were regularly above 80%, it is important to examine how respondents differ from nonrespondents, as this difference could affect the accuracy of the estimates. For more details on how sample difference and the associated nonresponse bias impact income and official poverty estimates, refer to the Research Matters blog, “Using Administrative Data to Evaluate Nonresponse Bias in the 2024 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement.”
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 reportcompares 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.
Poverty
As defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Statistical Poverty Directive 14 and updated for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, the weighted average poverty threshold for a family of four in 2023 was $30,900 (Refer to <www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-poverty-thresholds.html> for the complete set of dollar value thresholds that vary by family size and composition).
Official Poverty Measure
- In 2023, the official poverty rate fell 0.4 percentage points to 11.1%. There were 36.8 million people in poverty in 2023, not statistically different from 2022.
- Between 2022 and 2023, the official poverty rate decreased for White and non-Hispanic White individuals; women; 18- to 64-year-olds; unrelated individuals; all workers; less than full-time, year-round workers; and those with some college. The only group to experience a statistically significant increase in their official poverty rate was the Two or More Races population.
Supplemental Poverty Measure
The SPM extends the official poverty measure by accounting for several government programs that are designed to assist low-income families but are not included in official poverty measure calculations. The SPM also accounts for geographic variation in housing expenses when calculating the poverty thresholds and includes federal and state taxes, work expenses, and medical expenses. The SPM does not replace the official poverty measure; however, it does provide a different metric of economic well-being that includes resources from government programs and tax credits to low-income families.
- The SPM rate in 2023 was 12.9%, an increase of 0.5 percentage points from 2022.
- The SPM child poverty rate increased 1.3 percentage points to 13.7% in 2023.
- Social Security continued to be the most important antipoverty program in 2023, moving 27.6 million people out of SPM poverty. Other antipoverty programs include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), housing subsidies, child tax credits and unemployment insurance, and other programs.
- The share of the population with resources below 50% of their poverty threshold was higher using the official poverty measure with a consistent universe (5.2%) than when using the SPM (4.4%).
Health Insurance
The CPS ASEC asks people about health insurance coverage during the previous calendar year. People are considered insured if they were covered by any type of health insurance for part or all of the previous calendar year. People are considered uninsured if, for the entire year, they were not covered by any type of insurance. Among the findings:
- In 2023, most people, 92.0% or 305.2 million, had health insurance at some point during the year, not statistically different from 2022.
- In 2023, private health insurance coverage continued to be more prevalent than public coverage, at 65.4% and 36.3%, respectively. Some people may have more than one coverage type during the calendar year.
- Of the more common subtypes of health insurance coverage, employment-based insurance was the most prevalent, covering 53.7% of the population for some or all of the calendar year, followed by Medicaid (18.9%), Medicare (18.9%), and direct-purchase coverage (10.2%).
- Between 2022 and 2023, the rate of Medicare coverage increased by 0.2 percentage points to cover 18.9% of people. This increase was due in part to growth in the number of people age 65 and older.
- The uninsured rate for children under age 19 increased by 0.5 percentage points to 5.8% between 2022 and 2023.
Regional estimates are available for income, poverty and health insurance coverage in each respective report. Tables showing state-level poverty and SPM rates using three-year averages are available in the press kit.
The CPS ASEC is subject to sampling and nonsampling errors. All comparisons made here and in each respective report have been tested and found to be statistically significant at the 90% confidence level, unless otherwise noted.
Additional information on the source of the data and accuracy of the income, poverty and health insurance estimates is available at <https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/techdocs/cpsmar24.pdf>.