US poverty rates not significantly changed in 2024, Census Bureau says

WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The main gauge of U.S. poverty did not change significantly in 2024, and household income also remained about level except for gains among the wealthiest Americans, the U.S. Census Bureau said on Tuesday.

Overall, many aspects of the Census Bureau data on poverty, income, and insurance for the final year of former Democratic President Joe Biden's administration were not significantly changed from the previous year.

The supplemental poverty measure, which is considered the main gauge of poverty as it is adjusted for government support such as food assistance and tax credits, as well as household expenses, was 12.9% in 2024, similar to the previous year, the Census Bureau said.

The official poverty rate fell slightly to 10.6%, it said.

In 2024, a family with two adults and two children was classified as living in poverty if their income was less than $31,812, bureau officials said at a news briefing.

The official poverty rate was down 0.4 percentage points from 2023, officials said, adding that there were 35.9 million people in poverty last year in the United States.

Real median household income was $83,730 in 2024, not significantly different from 2023, bureau officials said.

"We're seeing that household income and earnings kept pace with inflation," Liana Fox, bureau assistant division chief for social, economic and housing statistics, told reporters.

"It's a story of stability, but not necessarily growth - except at the top end of the income distribution," she said.

The bureau said household income at the 90th percentile increased 4.2% from 2023. It remained basically unchanged at the 10th and 50th percentiles between 2023 and 2024.

The bureau reported the female-to-male earnings ratio in 2024 dipped to 80.9% from 82.7% in 2023, marking the second consecutive annual decrease.

It said median income increased by 5.1% for Asian households and 5.5% for Hispanic households, while it declined by 3.3% for Black households in 2024. It did not change significantly for white households, it said.

Most people in America had health insurance for some or all of 2024, the Census Bureau said, but 27.1 million people, or 8% of the U.S. population, did not have health coverage at any time.