U.S. — The U.S. Census Bureau reported that median household income rose to a record $87,460 in 2025. The official poverty rate declined to 10.2% during the same period.

The official U.S. poverty rate declined to 10.2% in 2025 from 10.7% in 2024. In 2025, 34.5 million people in the U.S. lived below the poverty line, compared to 36 million in 2024. The child poverty rate fell to 13.4% in 2025, marking the lowest rate on record.

The supplemental poverty measure, which accounts for taxes, government benefits, and additional expenses, was 13.1% in 2025. The uninsured rate remained at 7.9% in 2025.

Earnings data showed divergent trends by gender. Women's median earnings increased by 3.2% in 2025. Men's median earnings declined slightly in 2025. In 2025, women earned approximately 84 cents for every dollar earned by men, an increase from less than 81 cents in 2024.

Sharon Parrott, President of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, commented on the role of social programs in the 2025 data. "Things like SNAP and Medicaid made a really big difference in lowering poverty and expanding health coverage," Parrott said. She later addressed policy changes that occurred after the data collection period. "Instead of building on that improvement and recognizing the record of success of things like SNAP and Medicaid, Republican policymakers enacted very deep cuts, historically large cuts that right now are taking food assistance and health coverage away from people, putting upward pressure on poverty, increasing the ranks of the uninsured, and really taking us in the wrong direction," she said.

Why It Matters

The Census Bureau is the U.S. agency responsible for the census and related statistics. Its reports serve as primary references for economic policy and program eligibility. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) requires the U.S. Secretary of Labor to update and publish Lower Living Standard Income Level tables annually using such data. These tables help determine eligibility for youth programs and define low-income individuals based on total family annual income.

The 2025 figures provide a baseline for assessing the impact of later legislative actions. Critics of Republican policy note that deep cuts to SNAP and Medicaid put upward pressure on poverty despite the improvements seen in 2025. Proponents of the social safety net argue that programs like SNAP and Medicaid lowered poverty and expanded health coverage during the period measured. Economic analysts view 2025 as a benchmark where modest gains in income and poverty were offset by worsening conditions in other measures in subsequent periods.

Timeline

In 2025, the median household income of $87,460 was the highest recorded since the Census Bureau began measuring it in 1967. Asian households had the highest median income in 2025 at $126,300, a 1.6% increase from 2024. The median U.S. household income rose 2.6% in 2025 after adjusting for inflation, reaching $87,460.

Households in the top 10% of income saw a 1.7% gain in 2025, reaching a median income of $261,300. The child poverty rate fell to 13.4% in 2025, the lowest on record. Households in the bottom 10% of income saw little change or a slight decline in 2025, with income just over $20,000. White households' median income rose 2.9% to $96,710 in 2025.

What's New

A study titled "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage In The United States: 2003" was published in 2004 in PsycEXTRA Dataset. Research titled Frequent Survey Requests and Declining Response Rates: Evidence from the 2020 Census and Household Surveys was published in 2024 in Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology. The 2025 median household income of $87,460 is the highest recorded since the Census Bureau began measuring it in 1967. Hispanic households' median income rose 1.1% to $73,260 in 2025.