As a group, Northeast states saw a sharp drop in the number of residents lacking health insurance, with 750,000 more people getting coverage in 2011 compared to the year before.
The Northeast again led the nation in the lowest percentage of residents lacking insurance, according to estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau, at 11 percent compared to 12.4 percent in 2010.
The Census Bureau plans to publish additional findings this month breaking down insurance and income data at the state and county level.
Nationwide, the number of people without health insurance coverage declined from 50 million in 2010 to 48.6 million in 2011, as did the percentage without coverage ”“ from 16.3 percent in 2010 to 15.7 percent in 2011.
The change was driven by increased numbers of people on Medicare and Medicaid, with the percentage of people covered under their employers”™ policies flat at just over 55 percent.
In 2011, real median household income was just over $50,000 in the United States, a 1.5 percent decline from the 2010 median and 8.1 percent below the median in 2007.
The nation’s poverty rate in 2011 was 15 percent, with 46.2 million people in poverty. After three consecutive years of increases, neither the poverty rate nor the number of people in poverty were statistically different from the 2010 estimates.
