(WASHINGTON) — The inflation-adjusted median income of U.S. households rebounded last year to roughly its 2019 level, overcoming the biggest price spike in four decades to restore most Americans' purchasing power.
The proportion of Americans living in poverty also fell slightly last year, to 11.1%, from 11.5% in 2022. But the ratio of women's median earnings to men's widened for the first time in more than two decades as men's income rose more than women's in 2023.
Read More: Yes, Inflation Is Going Down. But Here’s Why Prices Aren’t
The latest data came Tuesday in an annual report from the Census Bureau, which said the median household income, adjusted for inflation, rose 4% to $80,610 in 2023, up from $77,450 in 2022. It was the first increase since 2019, and is essentially unchanged from that year's figure of $81,210, officials said. (The median income figure is the point at which half the population is above and half below and is less distorted by extreme incomes than the average.)
“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.
Read More: How to Buy Groceries Right Now Without Breaking the Bank
The figures could become a talking point in the presidential campaign 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.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2024
- Inside the Rise of Bitcoin-Powered Pools and Bathhouses
- How Nayib Bukele’s ‘Iron Fist’ Has Transformed El Salvador
- What Makes a Friendship Last Forever?
- Long COVID Looks Different in Kids
- Your Questions About Early Voting , Answered
- Column: Your Cynicism Isn’t Helping Anybody
- The 32 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2024