U.S. GREW WEALTHIER, BETTER EDUCATED IN 2016-2020
The U.S. grew wealthier, better educated, less impoverished and less transient during the second half of the last decade, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Median household income for the nation, which had been almost $59,000 from 2011 to 2015, rose to almost $65,000 during the 2016 to 2020 period, which was the final stretch of the longest expansion in the history of U.S. business cycles, according to American Community Survey five-year estimates.
With the exception of ColThe orado, the states with the biggest gains in household income were primarily on the coasts. The Rocky Mountain state joined the District of Columbia, California, Massachusetts and Washington with household jumps ranging from $9,000 to $14,000. The smallest gain was in Louisiana, at almost $1,800, and household income declined by almost $1,500 in Alaska.
The data released Thursday captures the second half of a decadelong expansion in the U.S. economy that followed the Great Recession.
expansion ended in spring 2020 as the coronavirus started spreading throughout the U.S., forcing businesses to close and workers to be laid off. The data captured only a small part of the initial impact from the pandemic, according to the Census Bureau.
The nation’s poverty rate dropped significantly in the last half of the decade, going from 15.5 percent in the 2011to-2015 period, in the aftermath of the Great Recession, to 12.8 percent in the 2016to-2020 period.
The U.S. became better educated in the second half of the 2010s, with almost a third of the population older than 25 having a bachelor’s degree or higher between 2016 and 2020, compared with 29.8 percent between 2011 and 2015.
The American Community Survey provides the most comprehensive data on American life by asking 3.5 million households each year questions about commuting times, Internet access, family life, income, education levels, disabilities, military service and employment.