The real median 2021 household income of Americans, recorded at $70,784, was down for a second year in a row, while poverty crept up as the country battles inflation at a 40-year high, according to numbers released on Sept. 13 by the U.S. Census Bureau in its annual report on the nation’s financial well-being.
Compared to 2020 when the real median household income was $71,186, the latest report shows a decrease of 0.56 percent. Without adjusting for inflation, the median income for 2020 was $67,521, a decrease of 2.9 percent from the 2019 median of $69,560. Meanwhile, the official poverty rate last year was 11.6 percent, with 37.9 million people in poverty. This is an increase of more than 1 percent from 2020’s 37.5 million. In 2019, there were 34 million in poverty, an inflation-unadjusted rate of 10.5 percent.
