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The median household income in the U.S. rose by an inflation-adjusted 4% last year, marking the first statistically significant increase since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.
The 2023 figure of $80,610 is up from $77,450 in 2022 and is only slightly less than 2019’s $81,201, according to the bureau’s annual “Income in the United States” report.
The rebound means the typical American household’s purchasing power has overcome the inflation behind the country’s biggest price hikes in four decades, according to the Associated Press.
“We are back to that pre-COVID peak that we experienced,” said Liana Fox, assistant chief of the Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division of the Census Bureau.
But while purchasing power has been restored, the typical household hasn’t seen its living standards rise, a sharp difference from the preceding four years, when inflation-adjusted median incomes rose 14%, AP said.
Median income refers to the amount at which half the population earns more and half earns less, and is less distorted by extremely high incomes than the average amount.
Other figures released by the Census Bureau showed that the official poverty rate fell slightly to 11.1% in 2023, down from 11.5% in 2022.
But the ratio of female-to-male earnings among full-time, year-round workers also fell, to 82.7% from 84%, marking the first statistically significant decrease since 2003.
