Incomes hit new record high and poverty fell to pre-recession low in 2017

Typical family incomes rose to new record highs in 2017, and poverty subsided to pre-recession lows, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

Median household income rose to $61,400, according to the bureau's Current Population Survey, improving 1.8 percent on the previous year’s mark of $60,300. Over the past two years, median incomes appear to have eclipsed, finally, the all-time high set in the dotcom bubble year of 1999, adjusting for inflation.

The comparison, though, complicated by changes the Census Bureau made to survey questions in 2014. Adjusting for those changes suggests that typical incomes were roughly the same in 2017 as they were in 2007 and 1999, a Census official said.

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