The average American household finally got ahead of inflation between 2022 and 2023. New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows real median household income increased by 4.0%.
That’s the first statistically significant annual increase in real median household income since 2019, the Bureau said.
The report found inflation-adjusted median household income was $80,610 in 2023, up from $77,540 the previous year. That’s about where incomes were in the months before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here are other key takeaways from the report:
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.
Women saw smaller income increases than men.
The improvement in incomes occurred after the U.S. economy finally emerged from the disruption caused by the pandemic. Economists credited a growing labor market in 2023, as well as a slow decline in inflation.
Health insurance coverage
The report also showed that most Americans – 92% – had some form of health insurance coverage 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.