Americans' income hits record, with wide gaps mirroring Mass. disparities
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U.S. household income hit a record in 2025, but the lowest earners barely shared in the gains, mirroring disparities in Massachusetts, new Census data show.
Why it matters: Broader measures of financial security show millions still getting squeezed by medical costs, uneven income gains and a thinning public safety net — even as Americans look richer than ever.
Context: The 2025 Census report largely captures the economy before the major safety-net reductions in President Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" took hold.
- That makes this year's record income and near-record-low official poverty numbers an important benchmark for measuring what happens next.
By the numbers: The median household income in Massachusetts was roughly $114,600, pre-tax, and $95,530 post-tax, the highest of any state.
- Massachusetts' poverty rate was lower than the national average, 9.1% compared to 10.2%.
Zoom out: Real median household income rose 2.6% to $87,460 nationally last year, the highest inflation-adjusted level since census records began in 1967.
- The official poverty rate fell for a third straight year.
- Poverty among Hispanics dropped to a record low of 13.9%, though their median household income showed no significant change from 2024.
Yes, but: The census report suggests low-income households largely missed out on the economy's gains.
- Income among the wealthiest 10% rose 1.7%, while remaining stagnant among the bottom 10%.
- Households at the 90th percentile earned about $261,300, more than 13 times what households at the 10th percentile earned.
- 52.4% of all household income went to the top fifth percentile, while 3% went to the bottom fifth.
Threat level: Big racial income gaps persist for some groups.
- Asian American households had the highest median income at $126,300 in 2025, compared with $91,930 for white households and $59,980 for Black American households.
- Household income rose among Black Americans and whites, but remained flat among Asian Americans.
Zoom in: Massachusetts households illustrate how wide wealth disparities fall on racial lines, per the Federal Reserve of Boston's recent follow-up wealth report.
- The median "net wealth" for a family hovered around $374,000 in 2025, and $549,000 for white families, per the report.
- That's over 70 times as high as Black families' median net wealth and over 457 times as high as Hispanic families'.
The Supplemental Poverty Measure, which factors in taxes, government benefits, housing, work and medical expenses, held statistically steady at 13.1% — nearly 3 percentage points above the government's poverty rate.
- Medical expenses put an estimated 7.7 million more people below the supplemental poverty line in 2025, the Census Bureau said.
What we're watching: The 2025 numbers may represent the last snapshot before major federal safety-net cuts begin showing up in the Census data, Robert Greenstein, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, tells Axios.