SEPT. 9, 2025 — The U.S. Census Bureau today announced that real median household income was $83,730 in 2024, not statistically different from the 2023 estimate of $82,690. The official poverty rate fell 0.4 percentage points to 10.6% in 2024. The following 2024 findings were all not statistically different from 2023. The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) rate in 2024 was 12.9%. Meanwhile, 92.0% of the U.S. population had health insurance coverage for all or part of 2024. An estimated 27.1 million or 8.0% of people did not have health insurance at any point during 2024, according to the 2025 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC).
These findings come from three Census Bureau reports: “Income in the United States: 2024,” “Poverty in the United States: 2024,” and “Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2024.” While the official poverty measure is based on the concept of money income, which is pretax and does not include tax credits, the SPM is a post-tax and transfer poverty measure. The SPM provides an alternative way of measuring poverty in the United States and serves as an additional indicator of economic well-being. The Census Bureau has published poverty estimates using the SPM annually since 2011 in collaboration with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
For consistency with past reports, the income estimates in the “Income in the United States: 2024” report are based on the concept of money income. Appendix B of the income report provides post-tax estimates of median household income and income inequality metrics.
All three reports are based on data from the CPS ASEC. The Current Population Survey (CPS), sponsored jointly by the Census Bureau and BLS, is conducted monthly and is a primary source of labor force statistics for the U.S. population. Supplements are added in most months. The CPS ASEC — conducted in February, March and April — is designed to provide annual, national estimates of income, poverty and health insurance, collecting information about job status, income and health insurance coverage for the prior calendar year.
Although the 2025 CPS ASEC was collected using standard procedures, response rates are still lower than they were before the pandemic. The weighted response rate for the 2025 CPS ASEC was 62.0%, compared to 61.7% for the previous year.
As response rates decline, the risk of bias increases. To reduce the bias, the CPS ASEC program includes adjustments to survey weights for nonresponse and controls them to population totals to ensure the CPS ASEC results are representative of the U.S. population.
Since response rates remain below pre-pandemic levels, examining how respondents differ from nonrespondents is important, as this difference could affect the accuracy of the estimates. For more details on how sample differences and the associated nonresponse bias impact income and official poverty estimates, refer to the Research Matters blog, “Using Administrative Data to Evaluate Nonresponse Bias in the 2025 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement.” This blog also discusses ongoing research into new methods that could better address nonresponse bias and other sources of nonsampling error.
Income estimates are based on the concept of money income and do not account for the value of in-kind transfers. They are pretax, unless otherwise indicated.
The female-to-male earnings ratio compares the median earnings of women and men, both working full-time, year-round.
Post-tax income is defined as money income net of federal and state taxes and credits, as well as payroll taxes (FICA). Appendix B of the income report compares household median income and inequality measures based on post-tax income.
As defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Statistical Policy Directive 14 and updated for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, the weighted average poverty threshold for a family of four in 2024 was $32,130. (Refer to https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/income-poverty/historical-poverty-thresholds.html for the complete set of dollar value thresholds that vary by family size and composition.)
The SPM extends the official poverty measure by accounting for several government programs designed to assist low-income families that are not included in official poverty measure calculations. The SPM, which also accounts for geographic variation in housing expenses when calculating the poverty thresholds, includes federal and state taxes, work expenses, and medical expenses. The SPM does not replace the official poverty measure. However, it does provide a different metric of economic well-being that includes resources from government programs and tax credits to low-income families.
The CPS ASEC asks people about health insurance coverage during the previous calendar year. People are considered insured if they were covered by any type of health insurance for part or all of the previous calendar year. People are considered uninsured if, for the entire year, they were not covered by any type of insurance. Among the findings:
Regional estimates are available for income, poverty and health insurance coverage in each respective report. Tables showing state-level poverty and SPM rates using three-year averages are available in the press kit.
The CPS ASEC is subject to sampling and nonsampling errors. All comparisons made here and in each respective report have been tested and found to be statistically significant at the 90% confidence level, unless otherwise noted.
Additional information on the source of the data and accuracy of the income, poverty and health insurance estimates is available at https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/techdocs/cpsmar25.pdf.
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