Median Household Income & Poverty Measures For 2011

Yesterday saw the release of  “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States, 2011″ (pdf) from the U.S. Census Bureau.

As seen on page 5:

Median household income was $50,054 in 2011, a 1.5 percent decline in real terms from
2010.  This was the second consecutive annual decline in household income.

In 2011, real median household income was 8.1 percent lower than in 2007, the year before the most recent recession, and was 8.9 percent lower than the median household income peak that occurred in 1999.

As seen on page 13:

In 2011, the official poverty rate was 15.0 percent. There were 46.2 million people in poverty.

After 3 consecutive years of increases, neither the official poverty rate nor the number of
people in poverty were statistically different from the 2010 estimates.

As seen on the chart on page 5, Real Median Income has experienced anemic growth for decades.  In 1967 it was $42,056 in real terms.

As for the Poverty figures, this measure has been widely criticized.  However, even if one uses the as-stated figures, it is obviously substantial.

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The Special Note summarizes my overall thoughts about our economic situation

SPX at 1436.56 as this post is written