The median households for U.S. residents increased from 2015 to 2020 while the country became more diverse, according to the new five-year American Community Survey estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, File Photo by Gil C/Shutterstock
March 18 (UPI) — The median household income for U.S. residents increased from 2015 to 2020 while the country became more diverse, according to the new five-year American Community Survey estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau.
According to the new report, the median household income increased to $64,994 compared with the previous five-year period, adjusted for inflation. Those incomes increased in 48 states and the District of Columbia and decreased in Alaska. There were no statistical differences in Wyoming and Puerto Rico, the report said.
The overall poverty rate dropped over the same period from 15.5% to 12.8%. Poverty declined in 1,294 counties while increasing in 85 counties. There was no significant change in 1,840 counties.
“Across these two time periods, the poverty rate decreased in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, while the change in the poverty rate in Alaska was not statistically significant. No state had an increase in poverty,” the report said.
The report said the White population remained the largest ethnic group in the United States but those claiming two or more races also increased over the past five years.
Those of Hispanic or Latino population, which includes people of any race, grew at a faster pace between 2011-2015 and 2016-2020 than the population that was not of Hispanic or Latino origin.
More than 204 million identified themselves as White alone while 41.1 million identified themselves as Black alone. Some 19.8 million identified themselves as Asian alone. Another 3 million identified themselves as both Black and White.
The Hispanic and Latino population grew from 17.13% in 2011-2015 to 18.2% in 2016-2020.
“The observed changes in the overall racial distributions could be due to a number of factors, including demographic change,” the report said. “However, we expect they were largely due to the improvements to the design, processing and coding of the race and ethnicity questions, which enabled a more thorough and accurate depiction of how people prefer to self-identify.”
