US Household Incomes Recovered to Pre-Pandemic Levels After Inflation Adjustment

(WASHINGTON) — After experiencing the most significant price surge in four decades, U.S. households saw their inflation-adjusted median income rebound to levels comparable to those of 2019 last year, restoring purchasing power for most Americans.

The percentage of Americans living in poverty also saw a slight decrease last year, settling at 11.1% compared to 11.5% in 2022. However, the ratio of women’s median earnings to men’s widened for the first time in over two decades, as men’s income growth outpaced women’s in 2023.

The latest data, released on Tuesday in an annual report by the Census Bureau, revealed that the median household income, adjusted for inflation, climbed by 4% to $80,610 in 2023, marking an increase from $77,450 in 2022. Officials noted that this was the first rise since 2019 and is essentially in line with the figure for that year, which stood at $81,210. (The median income figure represents the point where half of the population earns above it and half below, offering a less distorted picture than the average due to the influence of extreme incomes.)

“We are back to that pre-COVID peak that we experienced,” said Liana Fox, assistant division chief in the Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division at the Census Bureau.

The figures could become a if Vice President Kamala Harris were to point to them as evidence that Americans’ financial health has largely recovered after inflation peaked at 9.1% in 2022. Former President Donald Trump might counter that household income grew faster in his first three years in office than in the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration, though income fell during his administration after the pandemic struck in 2020.