The U.S. median household income was $63,179 in 2018, not statistically different than the previous year, following three consecutive years of annual increases. according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics released today.

At first glance, it would appear that median income was higher than every year prior to 2017, surpassing the median income for 2007 ($60,985 in 2018 dollars) and 1999 ($61,526 in 2018 dollars). In 2017, the median income was $62,626, not statistically different from 2018. So, making comparisons prior to 2017 requires caution, since recent estimates reflect recent changes to the survey.

Maryland’s median household income was $80,776 in 2017. Later this month, the Census Bureau will release all 2018 single-year estimates of median household income, poverty and health insurance for all states, counties, places and other geographic units with populations of 65,000 or more from the American Community Survey.

The official poverty rate in 2018 was 11.8%, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points from 2017. This is the fourth consecutive annual decline in the national poverty rate. In 2018, for the first time in 11 years, the official poverty rate was significantly lower than in 2007, the year before the most recent recession. The number of people in poverty in 2018 was 38.1 million, 1.4 million fewer people than in 2017.

The percentage of people with health insurance coverage for all or part of 2018 was 91.5%, lower than the rate in 2017 (92.1%). Between 2017 and 2018, the percentage of people with public coverage decreased by 0.4 percentage points, and the percentage of people with private coverage did not statistically change.

These findings are contained in two U.S. Census reports: Income and Poverty in the United States: 2018 and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2018.