This fact sheet provides key numbers from today’s new Census reports, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2019 and The Supplemental Poverty Measure: 2019. Each section has headline statistics from the reports for 2019, as well as comparisons with the previous year, with 2007 (the final year of the economic expansion that preceded the Great Recession), and with 2000 (the historical high point for many of the statistics in these reports). All dollar values are adjusted for inflation (2019 dollars). Because of a redesign in the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) income questions in 2013, we imputed the historical series using the ratio of the old and new method in 2013. All percentage changes from before 2013 are based on this imputed series. We do not adjust for the break in the series in 2017 due to differences in the legacy CPS ASEC processing system and the updated CPS ASEC processing system, but these differences are small and statistically insignificant in most cases. Also, there are significant concerns about data quality, given the fall in survey response rates. It appears that nonresponse biased income estimates up and poverty statistics down so the actual reported improvement should be taken with a grain of salt.

Earnings

Median annual earnings for men working full time grew 2.1%, to $57,456, in 2019. Men’s earnings are up 3.0% since 2007, and are 3.6% higher than they were in 2000.

Median annual earnings for women working full time grew 3.0%, to $47,299, in 2019. Women’s earnings are up 9.0% since 2007, and are 15.7% higher than they were in 2000.

Incomes

Median household income rose 6.8%, to $68,703, in 2019. Median household income is up 7.3% since 2007, and is 6.5% higher than it was in 2000.

Median nonelderly household income rose 6.7%, to $77,873, in 2019. Median nonelderly household income is up 8.1% since 2007, and is 4.3% higher than it was in 2000.

Median household income for white, non-Hispanic households rose 5.7%, to $76,057, in 2019. Median household income is up 8.2% since 2007, and is 8.2% higher than it was in 2000.

Median household income for African American households rose 8.5%, to $46,073, in 2019. Median household income is up 6.3% since 2007 and is 1.4% higher than it was in 2000.

Median household income for Hispanic households rose 7.1%, to $56,113, in 2019. Median household income is up 21.1% since 2007 and is 17.3% higher than it was in 2000.

Poverty

The poverty rate fell 1.3 percentage points, to 10.5%, in 2019. The poverty rate is 2.0 percentage points lower than in 2007. The poverty rate is 0.8 percentage points lower than it was in 2000.

The child poverty rate fell 1.8 percentage points, to 14.4%, in 2019. The child poverty rate was also 3.6 percentage points lower in 2019 than it was in 2007 and is 1.8 percentage points below to its 2000 level.

The white, non-Hispanic poverty rate fell 0.8 percentage points, to 7.3%, in 2019. The white, non-Hispanic poverty rate is 0.9 percentage points lower than in 2007 and is 0.1 percentage points lower than it was in 2000.

The African American poverty rate fell 2.0 percentage points, to 18.7%, in 2019. The African American poverty rate is 5.7 percentage points lower than in 2007 and is now 3.8 percentage points lower than it was in 2000.

The Hispanic poverty rate fell 1.9 percentage points, to 15.7%, in 2019. The Hispanic poverty rate is 5.8 percentage points lower than in 2007 and is 5.8 percentage points lower than it was in 2000.

Policy matters

The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) is an alternative poverty measure published by the Census Bureau since 2010 that is more sophisticated than the official poverty measure referenced earlier in this fact sheet. The SPM takes into account an array of typical expenses—such as housing, food, clothing, health care, and more—as well as people’s income from both market sources and government programs. Using the Supplemental Poverty Measure, we can evaluate how government assistance lifts people out of poverty.

SPM poverty rate in 2019: 11.7%

Impact of government assistance on poverty as measured by the SPM:

• Social Security kept 26.5 million people out of poverty in 2019.
• Refundable tax credits (such as the Earned Income Tax Credit) kept 7.5 million people out of poverty in 2019.
• The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as food stamps) kept 2.5 million people out of poverty in 2019.
• Unemployment insurance kept 472,000 people out of poverty in 2019.