New Census Bureau Figures Show Phila. Residents Incomes Higher, But Poverty Rate Still The Same
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- More Philadelphia area residents were covered by health insurance last year and incomes were higher, but the poverty rate stayed the same.
That's among the data released by the Census Bureau Thursday morning.
The Census Bureau's American Community Survey found the Philadelphia Metropolitan area saw a one-thousand dollar a year increase in median household income, to 62-thousand, last year, but no change in the poverty rate of 13.4 percent, according to the census bureau's poverty statistics chief Trudi Renwick.
"In terms of median household income, it's tenth of 25 metro areas and same with poverty," says Renwick, "it's tenth of the 25 largest metro areas."
Renwick says the rate of insurance coverage climbed, thanks in part to the Medicaid expansion in New Jersey and Delaware.
Those covered by public insurance went up more than half a percentage point; those covered by private insurance climbed a point and a half.