New Data Shows Overall Steady Health Coverage and Progress for Family Incomes and Poverty in 2024; Trump-backed Policies Likely to Reverse Course

Concerning changes for Black households in 2024 may also worsen in 2025

The United States Census Bureau released new data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), which provides key indicators of how people across the United States fared in 2024, including health coverage, income, and poverty rates. The percentage of uninsured individuals remained steady, likely due to coverage losses related to the end of COVID-era Medicaid protections being offset by increased enrollment in Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace coverage. Typical family incomes rose 3% and earnings for men who worked full-time, year-round rose 3.7% even after adjusting for inflation. Finally, both the official poverty measure and “anchored” supplemental poverty rate dipped slightly in the final year of the Biden administration compared to 2023. Unfortunately, these rates are likely to worsen in the coming years due to recent federal policy decisions, including the passage of H.R. 1, the failure to extend enhanced ACA premium tax credits, and more.

As a reminder, CPS offers insight at the national level, while the upcoming Thursday release of American Community Survey (ACS) data provides a more accurate picture at the state and local levels. We encourage media, advocates, and stakeholders to wait until the release of ACS data, available on Thursday, September 11, for state-level income and health coverage estimates. The ACS data is more reliable with a larger sample size.

Health Insurance 

The uninsured rate remained steady across the United States. Medicaid coverage loss, likely due to the expiration of COVID-era health coverage protections, was offset by increased enrollment in the ACA marketplace, which was made more affordable by enhanced premium tax credits that are set to expire at the end of 2025. In 2024, 8% of people in the country did not have health coverage (the same rate as 2023). Notably, uninsured rates for Black adults aged 19 to 64 in the United States saw an increase from 11.1% in 2023 to 12.3% in 2024.

Over the long term, the 8% uninsured rate still marks progress in access to health coverage for people in the United States compared to 2013 (13.3% uninsured), the year prior to the ACA’s full implementation. The ACA provides more people with an opportunity to enroll in affordable health coverage through the ACA marketplace, the state option to expand Medicaid eligibility, and for young people to maintain coverage through their parents’ health insurance plans through the age of 26.

Unfortunately, instead of building on this progress, Congressional Republicans and President Trump passed H.R. 1 and refused to extend enhanced ACA premium tax credits. This will result in over 14 million people becoming uninsured in the United States due to being kicked off or priced out of health coverage by 2034. These policy decisions will take us backward, and we will see an increase in the share of people going without health coverage due to the provisions of H.R. 1 for years to come. 

Income

Income for the typical household in the United States was $83,730 in the final year of the Biden administration, statistically unchanged from the prior year after adjusting for inflation despite a slight numeric uptick. For families, which includes married couples and anyone else living with a relative, median income rose 3% to $108,600. Earnings for men who worked full-time, year-round rose 3.7% in 2024 compared to 2023 after accounting for inflation, and earnings for workers with no high school diploma rose 6.6%, in line with previously available data from the Current Employment Survey showing solid wage growth in 2024. Unfortunately, median incomes dipped for Black-led households in 2024 despite the generally positive income picture overall. 

Additionally, the economic policies of the Trump administration are already reversing these somewhat positive trends, with unemployment growing, job growth slowing, and higher prices due to tariffs. Data for 2025, which will be released next year, is likely to tell a very different story.

Poverty

The official poverty measure (OPM) shrank slightly from 2023 to 2024, falling from 11.0% to 10.6%. The official poverty measure only uses pretax cash income and does not include programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC). When looking at the anchored “supplemental” poverty rates, which include benefits and taxes, to compare changes from 2023 to 2024, poverty rates fell from 12.9% in 2023 to 12.4% in 2024, remaining higher than historically low poverty rates in 2021.

The anchored supplemental poverty measure adjusts for benefits, taxes, and inflation but does not adjust for changes in household consumption patterns. While white (non-Hispanic), Asian, and Latino individuals saw significant drops in anchored supplemental poverty rates, Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, and individuals of two or more races saw no significant changes.  Also included in today’s release are three-year supplemental poverty averages for states. The average supplemental poverty rate from 2022 to 2024 in Virginia is 10.5% overall, lower than the nation’s overall supplemental rate during this time period.

Unfortunately, poverty is likely to get significantly worse in future years. Upcoming cuts to food assistance through SNAP, new restrictions to the Child Tax Credit, and cuts to health care that could increase medical expenses, all of which factor in the “supplemental” poverty measure, are likely to have an impact on poverty numbers in future years.