According to the Census Bureau’s annual report on income, poverty, and health insurance coverage, median income increased by 4% last year to $80,610. This rise was due to a reduction in inflation, which had reached a four-decade high in 2022. However, median incomes remained $600 below the levels from four years prior.

While price pressures have eased, the costs of essentials like groceries, housing, and car insurance remain significantly higher than before the pandemic. This contributes to why many Americans felt the economy was in recession last year, and economic issues have become a major topic in the presidential election.

Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris has proposed an agenda targeting low- and middle-income families with measures such as tax credits and lower prescription drug costs. Her opponent, former President Donald Trump, has blamed the Biden Administration and Harris for high living costs, arguing that Americans are worse off compared to when he was in office.

The report also highlights disparities by race and gender. White households saw an increase in income, while Black, Asian, and Hispanic families experienced no significant change. Furthermore, real median earnings for full-time, year-round working women grew at half the rate of men’s, reversing recent trends. This represents the first significant drop in the female-to-male earnings ratio in two decades.

The official U.S. poverty rate, calculated before taxes and excluding stimulus payments and tax credits, decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 11.1%. This rate has roughly halved over the past sixty years and reached a record low before the pandemic. However, a supplemental poverty measure, which accounts for post-tax income and includes government transfer payments, increased by 0.5 percentage points to 12.9% last year.