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After a lost decade, Americans finally have begun making real gains, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The agency released data on income, poverty, and health insurance for 2016. The highlights include:
Last year, the Census Bureau reported that the median household income rose 5.2 percent between 2014 and 2015, the first gains since 2007. The financial collapse the following year triggered the Great Recession, the effects of which lingered for most of Obama’s presidency and hammered the middle class.
It also was the first year since the recession that the poverty rate was no statistically different than it was before the crash in 2007.
The income gains were fairly broad. For the second year in a row, median income rose for households headed by Hispanics, non-Hispanic whites, and blacks. Asian-Americans had the highest median income of any group, $81,400, but it was not statistically different than the previous year.