The median household in the U.S. finally last year earned more than it did in 1999.
WASHINGTON — In a stark reminder of the damage done by the Great Recession and of the modest recovery that followed, the median American household only last year finally earned more than it did in 1999.
Incomes for a typical U.S. household, adjusted for inflation, rose 3.2 percent from 2015 to 2016 to $59,039, the Census Bureau said. The median is the point at which half the households fall below and half are above.
Last year’s figure is slightly above the previous peak of $58,665, reached in 1999. It is also the first time since the recession ended in 2009 that the typical household earned more than it did in 2007, when the recession began.
The census data is based on interviews with 70,000 households and includes detailed data on incomes and poverty across a range of demographic groups.
Median household income climbed $4,641, or 8.5 percent, from 2014 through 2016. That’s the best two-year gain on records dating to 1967, according to analysts at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Yet that improvement comes after a steep recession and a slow recovery that left most American households with barely any income increases.
The report also showed that income inequality worsened last year, extending a trend in place for roughly four decades. Average incomes among the wealthiest 5 percent climbed 5.5 percent to $375,088. Average incomes for the poorest one-fifth of households, meanwhile rose 2.5 percent to $12,943.
Other measures of economic health improved. The poverty rate fell last year to 12.7 percent from 13.5 percent, the data said. A family of four with an income below $24,563 was defined as poor last year.
The proportion of Americans without health insurance fell to 8.8 percent, the report said, down from 9.1 percent. It is the lowest proportion on record.
The census report covers 2016, the last year of the Obama administration.
Robert Greenstein, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, argued that the agenda being pursued by President Donald Trump and congressional Republican leaders would reverse those gains.
Incomes rose for most demographic groups. African-American median household income jumped 5.7 percent to $39,490 in 2016 from the previous year, the most of any group. Among Latinos, it rose to 4.3 percent to $47,675. For whites, the gain was 2 percent to $65,041. AsianAmericans reported the highest household incomes, at $81,431, little changed from 2015.
The report found that the gender gap in wages narrowed last year for the first time since 2007. Women earned 80.5 percent of men’s earnings, up from 79.6 percent in 2015.