Unable to keep up with inflation, Indiana’s median household income has slipped an estimated 10 percent since 2000, with only three other states posting worse declines.
Although Hoosier earning power appears to have leveled off in the last couple of years, poverty has climbed along with the number of uninsured, according to census figures released Tuesday.
The numbers are from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey of 3 million households nationwide. Only localities with 65,000 or more residents were included in Tuesday’s report. In Indiana, 25 counties and eight cities were surveyed.
The American Community Survey replaces the traditional census long form and is being released annually rather than every 10 years.
The bureau reported Tuesday that the nation’s poverty rate dropped between 2005 and 2006 from 12.6 percent to 12.3 percent – the first drop this decade – while the number of people without health insurance rose from 44.8 million to 47 million.
In addition, median income rose between 2005 and 2006 to $48,200 nationally, according to census figures. The nation’s median income in 2000 was $50,815, when adjusted for inflation.
Indiana’s median household income was an estimated $45,394 last year, lower than the $50,298 earned in 1999, when adjusted for inflation. Only Michigan, Ohio and North Carolina had greater percentage declines. Only eight states showed incomes that outpaced inflation.
“It’s not necessarily a surprise our rank has gone down,” said Carol Rogers, associate director for information systems and services at Indiana University’s Indiana Business Research Center. “I would attribute that to a reduction in high-wage jobs.”
She linked the decline partially to a loss of production-related jobs through “faster, leaner ways of introducing products” and through attrition as older workers retire.
While the income downturn was felt by all races, black and Hispanic incomes showed the largest inflationary decline – an estimated 17 percent decrease for blacks and 21 percent decrease for Hispanics.
In Allen County, 2006 median income was 11 percent less than it was in 2000, with larger inflationary decreases for blacks and Hispanics.
Meanwhile, the county’s poverty rate has gone from 9 percent to an estimated 11 percent. Statewide the poverty rate went from 9 percent to an estimated 13 percent between 2000 and 2006.
Before 2000, Indiana was recognized as a low-poverty state, Rogers said. While the rate is still relatively low – ranked 25th among the states – it is increasing, she added. A steady population and good jobs once accounted for the low rate, but there aren’t as many good-paying jobs, she said.
“That is a concern to all of us,” Rogers said. “Why is that number increasing?”
Also released Tuesday were findings from the bureau’s Current Population Survey, which looked at the uninsured at the national and state levels.
Nationally, 15.8 percent of the population was uninsured in 2006, compared with 14 percent in 2000. In Indiana, the number of uninsured jumped from 12.1 percent in 2000 to 14 percent last year, according to the latest figures.
“Doesn’t surprise me,” said Mary Haupert, president of Neighborhood Health Clinics Inc., of the state’s increasing uninsured ranks. The non-profit on Fort Wayne’s south side offers medical and dental care for many low-income residents.
“We’re losing manufacturing jobs where people had good benefits and we’re replacing them with retail jobs” where many employees don’t receive benefits, Haupert said.
Like other social service agencies caring for the poor, Neighborhood Health has seen the number of people walking through its doors increase sharply in recent years. And the proportion of uninsured patients has risen with it.
In 2000, 5,904 people sought medical and dental care at Neighborhood Health, including 3,407 – 58 percent – who were uninsured. Last year, the agency served 12,104 patients. Of those, 8,558, or 71 percent, were uninsured.
Those without insurance live in constant fear of major medical expenses and tend to go without preventive care for themselves and family members, Haupert said.
