The Census Bureau has posted a new report called
Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005. For a country supposedly in the midst of a strong economy, the numbers aren't impressive. Median income has barely changed. Poverty is unchanged. Health Insurance covers a smaller fraction of Americans.
Data geeks will love it. 86 pages of charts and analysis. The interesting problem is that some numbers that generally correlate haven't that strongly.
Real median income in households rose 1.1%. All growth occurred in the NE and West. South and Midwest had no significant change. Of course the regions that have the supposed increase in real median income are the ones that have the largest increase in price of houses, an increase that is not properly reflected in the inflation deflator.
Although Gini has increased 4.2% over the past decade, it didn't increase this past year.
Real median earnings of men and women decreased in 2005, the decrease was greater for men (1.8%) as women only lost 1.3%.
Good stuff