U.S. poverty did not decline in 2014, nor did median household incomes rise, despite the ongoing economic recovery.
The Census Bureau reported Wednesday that 46.7 million Americans were in poverty in 2014, and the poverty rate was 14.8 percent, neither statistically different from the year before.
An alternative measure of poverty, one that takes into account government anti-poverty programs and tax breaks, showed poverty at 15.3 percent. That poverty statistic, known as the supplemental poverty measure, was also not significantly changed from the year before.
The bureau also found no statistically significant increase in median household income, which stood at $53,657 in 2014.
Median household income is still 6.5 percent below the peak it reached before the financial crisis in 2007. It’s also 7.2 percent below the all-time high reached in 1999.
The recession saw massive job and income losses, and an explosion in poverty that has yet to significantly abate.
The ranks of people below the federal poverty line grew from 37,276 in 2007 before the financial crisis to 46,657 in 2014. The poverty rate exploded from 12.5 percent to a high of 15.1 percent in 2010.
The poverty line for 2014 was $24,008 for a family of four.
While the unemployment rate has gradually retraced its spike during the recession, from as high as 10 percent in 2009 to 5.6 percent at the end of 2014 and 5.1 percent in August, poverty has yet to show a similar retrenchment.
Nor did the significant decrease in the number of people lacking healthcare in 2014 also reported by the Census drive down the poverty rate.
“It’s not unusual for poverty rates to be flat from one year to the next,” said Trudi Renwick, head of the Census’ poverty statistics. Renwick noted on a press call that the poverty rate did tick down between 2012 and 2013.
Black poverty was far higher, at 26.2 percent, than white poverty, at just over 10 percent.
More than one in five children were in poverty in 2014, according to the Census. The supplemental measure, however, showed that that child poverty saw a statistically significant decline in the year.
The numbers released Tuesday are taken from the annual Annual Social and Economic Supplements to the Current Population Survey, the Census’ longest-running survey.
