How California Ranks in Income, Poverty and Health Insurance

The Sacramento Bee, Capitol Alert –

September 12, 2012:

California’s median household income of $53,367 was only slightly higher than the national median last year while its poverty rate and its medically uninsured population were among the nation’s highest, according to a new Census Bureau report.

The national median income in inflation-adjusted dollars was $50,054, a 1.5 percent decline from 2010. Fourteen other states topped California in median household income last year, with Maryland the highest at $68,876 and South Carolina the lowest at $40,084.

The national poverty rate was 15 percent, virtually unchanged from the previous year, while California’s was 16.9 percent. The states ranged from 7.6 percent in New Hampshire to 22.2 percent in New Mexico.

The national rate of medically uninsured population was 15.7 percent, down from 16.3 percent in 2010, but California’s rate rose from 19.4 percent to 19.7 percent, continuing a trend of increasing rates. The 2011 California rate was nearly two percentage points higher than it had been a decade earlier and was the fifth highest rate in the nation.

The states’ medically uninsured rates ranged from 3.4 percent in Massachusetts to 23.8 percent in Texas. California’s 7.4 million medically uninsured residents were 15 percent of the national total.

Source: John & Rusty Report via Cal Choice