Median income hit record high in 2018 while poverty declined
Median U.S. household income reached $63,200 in 2018, the highest figure on record, new data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau revealed.
California has the highest levels of poverty, with 18.2% of its people, or 7 million, in poverty. This is essentially due to the high cost of living in California versus other states.
🇳🇱
@SecondJon So just did some research. The **actual** situation is that since 2001 the peak median household income was in mid 2015, not 2019 (which has yet to recover)
@freemo
I'm not a statistician, so curious : your chart compares year over year growth %, whereas the article is comparing dollar amount, which would go up with even a small growth rate?
@SecondJon no they arent year after year groth. It compares the same exact numbers as the one you suggested.. it just presents it in a more fair way in a few ways..
1) it uses inflation adjusted dollars, not absolute dollars
2) instead of showing the dollar amount it shows it as a percentage of a baseline value, that baseline being the median income in 2019.
so if you see some point that is "10%", for example, it isnt suggesting 10% growth from the year before. It is suggesting the inflation adjusted median income is 10% higher than it is in 2019.
@SecondJon Why isnt this inflation normalized as would be required in any peer-reviewed analysis of an economy?