MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US median household income: USD 50.233; poverty 12.5%

Hispanic and blacks have the lowest medium income

Real median household income in the United States climbed 1.3% between 2006 and 2007, reaching 50,233 US dollars according to a report released Tuesday by the US Census Bureau. This is the third annual increase in real median household income.

Meanwhile the US official poverty rate in 2007 was 12.5%, not statistically different from 2006. There were 37.3 million people in poverty in 2007, up from 36.5 million in 2006. The number of people without health insurance coverage declined from 47 million (15.8%) in 2006 to 45.7 million (15.3%) in 2007. These findings are contained in the report "Income, poverty and health insurance coverage in the United States: 2007". The data were compiled from information collected in the 2008 Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement(ASEC). Also released were income, poverty and earnings data from the 2007 American Community Survey (ACS) for all states and congressional districts, as well as for metropolitan areas, counties, cities and American Indian/Alaska Native areas of 65,000 population or more. The report also reveals that real median income (adjusted for inflation) for black and non-Hispanic white households rose between 2006 and 2007, representing the first measured real increase in annual household income for each group since 1999. However, real median household income remained statistically unchanged for Asians and Hispanics. Among the race groups and Hispanics, black households had the lowest median income in 2007 with 33,916 US dollars. This compares to the median of 54,920 for non-Hispanic white households. Asian households had the highest median income, 66,103 US dollars. The median income for Hispanic households was 38,679 US dollars. Regarding poverty in 2007 the family poverty rate and the number of families in poverty were 9.8% and 7.6 million, respectively, both statistically unchanged from 2006. Furthermore, the poverty rate and the number in poverty showed no statistical change between 2006 and 2007 for the different types of families. Married-couple families had a poverty rate of 4.9% (2.8 million), compared with 28.3% (4.1 million) for female-householder, no-husband-present families and 13.6% (696,000) for those with a male householder and no wife present. As defined by the US Office of Management and Budget and updated for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, the weighted average poverty threshold for a family of four in 2007 was 21,203 US dollars; for a family of three, 16,530; for a family of two, 13,540; and for unrelated individuals, 10,590 US dollars. In 2007, 21.5% of Hispanics were in poverty, up from 20.6% in 2006. Poverty rates remained statistically unchanged for non-Hispanic whites (8.2%), blacks (24.5%) and Asians (10.2%) in 2007.