NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Years after the Great Recession ended, 46.5 million Americans are still living in poverty, according to a Census Bureau report released Tuesday.
Meanwhile, median household income fell slightly to $51,017 a year, down from $51,100 in 2011 — a change the Census Bureau does not consider statistically significant.
Young people continued to struggle, with those under the age of 35 seeing slight drops in income while those 35 and over saw slight increases.
Asians has the highest household income ($68,600), followed by whites ($57,000), Hispanics ($39,000) and blacks ($33,300).
Income has tumbled since the recession hit, and is still 8.3% below where it was in 2007. Americans were the richest in 1999, when median household income was $56,080, adjusted for inflation.
The recession also pushed many more people into poverty. In 2010, the poverty rate peaked at 15.1%, and has barely fallen since then. This is the first time the poverty rate has remained at or above 15% three years running since 1965.
Those making $23,492 a year for a family of four, or $11,720 for an individual were considered to be living in poverty.
But poverty remains far below the 22.4% it was at in 1959 when the Census first began tracking the data. Over the last 25 years, the poverty rate has averaged just over 13%.
