On September 9, 2025, the U.S. Census Bureau released findings from its annual reports on income, poverty, and health insurance coverage in the United States for 2024. The results come from the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC), conducted in early 2025.
Income
- The real median household income in 2024 was $83,730, which was not statistically different from the 2023 estimate of $82,690.
- Income changes varied by group:
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- Increased by 5.1% for Asian households
- Increased by 5.5% for Hispanic households
- Declined by 3.3% for Black households
- No significant change for White or White non-Hispanic households
- Household income at the 90th percentile rose 4.2%, while incomes at the 10th and 50th percentiles did not change significantly.
- Among full-time, year-round workers, median earnings increased 3.7% for men, but did not change significantly for women.
- The female-to-male earnings ratio declined to 80.9% in 2024 from 82.7% in 2023, marking the second consecutive annual decrease.
- Median post-tax household income rose 1.8% from $71,040 in 2023 to $72,330 in 2024. Inequality, as measured by the Gini index, was 8.7% lower when calculated using post-tax income compared to pretax income.
Poverty
- The official poverty rate fell 0.4 percentage points to 10.6% in 2024, representing 35.9 million people.
- Between 2023 and 2024, the poverty rate decreased for White, Asian, and Hispanic individuals, with no significant change for other race groups.
- The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) was 12.9%, not statistically different from 2023.
- The SPM rate increased for those 65 years and older and for Black individuals, with no significant changes for other groups.
- Social Security remained the largest antipoverty program, moving 28.7 million people out of SPM poverty in 2024.
Health Insurance Coverage
- In 2024, 92.0% of the population (310 million people) had health insurance coverage for part or all of the year.
- An estimated 27.1 million people (8.0%) did not have coverage at any point in 2024.
- Private health insurance remained more common than public coverage at 66.1% vs. 35.5%.
- The most common type of coverage was employment-based insurance (53.8%), followed by:
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- Medicare: 19.1%
- Medicaid: 17.6%
- Direct-purchase: 10.7%
- TRICARE: 2.8%
- VA and CHAMPVA: 1.2%
- Private coverage increased by 0.7 percentage points from 2023, driven by direct-purchase plans.
- Public coverage decreased by 0.8 percentage points, due primarily to a 1.3-point drop in Medicaid coverage.
- Coverage rates for children under 19 and adults ages 19 to 64 showed similar patterns: higher private coverage and lower public coverage compared to 2023.
Data Collection Notes
- The 2025 CPS ASEC was conducted using standard procedures, but response rates remain lower than before the pandemic, at 62.0% in 2025 compared to 61.7% in 2024.
- Adjustments to survey weights and controls to population totals were used to address potential bias.
- Ongoing research continues on methods to reduce nonresponse bias and other nonsampling errors.
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