News brief:
Most of the Mountain West ranks below average when it comes to health insurance coverage and median income, according to recently released Census data. Poverty rates, meanwhile, are largely better than average throughout the region.
The Census’ yearly reports on the nation’s social and economic wellbeing made national headlines due to several troubling trends. Child poverty doubled, and median household income fell by 2.3 percent – down to $74,580 per year. Post-tax income inequality also grew.
The Census Bureau’s Liana Fox said in a webinar that many of these shifts are the result of high inflation and the loss of pandemic-era government aid, such as the expanded child tax credit.
“What we’re seeing is declines,” said Fox, an assistant division chief. “Declines in income at the bottom end of income…
