Despite income gains, Californians struggle

While U.S. household incomes rose and poverty levels dropped, U.S. census figures released Tuesday show that many Americans — particularly those in high-cost housing states like California — continue to struggle.

The income gains, the largest since the U.S. Census Bureau began recording such figures in 1967, signaled a key turning point in the American economy as it continues to recover from the punishing recession of nearly a decade ago. Health insurance rates also improved across the country, particularly in California, the census data show. But the figures also show the improvements aren’t shared equally.

“When you factor in our high housing costs, what you find is California has the highest poverty level in the nation,” said Alissa Anderson, senior policy analyst with the California Budget and Policy Center in Sacramento.

The figures showed American household income increased by

5.2 percent between 2014 and 2015 — from $53,718 to $56,516 — while the official poverty rate fell by 1.2 percentage points.

This marked the first sustained increase in median household income since 2007 adjusted for inflation, just before the most recent recession.

While Tuesday’s figures were primarily national — state and smaller geographic breakdowns will be released later — some of the data showed stark contrasts between the states.

Almost 8 million Californians, or 20.6 percent of residents, did not make enough money to pay for the basics needed to support themselves, according to an index in the census figures called the Supplemental Policy Measure.

The measure, which was first used in 2010, calculates poverty in a three-year index and factors in housing and other costs not included in the official poverty index, which is limited to cash income. The U.S. average was 15.1 percent.

Still, Tuesday’s census figures were widely viewed as positive news for the country.

“It’s a very good picture both in terms of family income and health,” said Ken Jacobs, chairman of UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor and Research and Education.

The numbers showed that in addition to the income gains, only 9 percent of Americans lacked health insurance last year. That translates to almost 7 million fewer uninsured Americans in 2015 than in 2014.

In California, the state uninsured rate dropped dramatically — from 17.2 percent in 2013, before the major provisions of the federal health law known as the Affordable Care Act went into effect, to 8.6 percent in 2015, according to one of the two data sets released Tuesday.

California also had the largest one-year decline in uninsured, with a 3.9 percentagepoint drop from 2014 to 2015.

“California has both strong enrollment in Covered California and strong enrollment in Medicaid,” said Jacobs, referring to the state’s health insurance marketplace and the state-federal health program for the poor. “It really demonstrates how well California has done in implementing” the Affordable Care Act.

Texas had the highest uninsured rate in 2015, at 17.1 percent, while Massachusetts had the lowest at 2.8 percent.

On Thursday, the Census Bureau will release single-year estimates of median household income, poverty and health insurance for all states, counties, places and other geographic units with populations of 65,000 or more. Additional figures will be released in October.

The bureau reported Tuesday that the percentage of Americans living in poverty, defined as only cash income, dropped to 13.5 percent in 2015 from 14.8 percent in 2014. While that marked one of the largest single-year declines in decades, it was still higher than the 12.3 percent poverty rate before the recession began in 2006.

“Certainly, we’re trending in the right direction,” Anderson, of the California Budget and Policy Center, said. “But our key take-away is far too many people are struggling to get by.”