By Mark Ferenchik, The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS – Median income and poverty numbers improved for Franklin County and the rest of Ohio from 2015 to 2016, according to new U.S. Census survey numbers released Thursday.
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And the percentage of people who are uninsured continued to decrease in central Ohio and across the state, according to the bureau’s American Community Survey estimates.
But the state’s median income of $52,234 ranks just 35th among the nation’s 50 states and the District of Columbia, and that concerns people such as Amy Hanauer, executive director of the left-leaning Policy Matters Ohio.
Hanauer said the data do show a second solid year of growth.
“(But) it used to be easier to earn a living in Ohio than the rest of the country. That’s no longer the case.”
Broken down by race, state rankings remain low. The Ohio median household income for white residents for 2016 was $56,579, or 33rd in the country. But for African Americans, it was just $31,035 (42nd), and for Latinos, $41,321 (33rd). For Ohio Asians, the median was $70,866 (21st).
Still, the general positive trends in the Columbus metro area mirror those across the country.
The Columbus metro area’s median income in 2016 was $60,294.
That was boosted in no small measure by Delaware County, which increased 5 percent from $96,410 to $101,693, the highest in the state. In Franklin County, the median household income grew 4 percent from 2015 to 2016, from $53,882 to $56,055, and both continued upward trends from 2012.
The bureau’s report shows the median American household only last year finally earned more than it did in 1999.
Incomes for a typical U.S. household, adjusted for inflation, rose 3.2 percent from 2015 to 2016 to $59,039, the Census Bureau said. The median is the point at which half the households fall below and half are above.
Last year’s figure is slightly above the previous peak of $58,665, reached in 1999. It is also the first time since the recession ended in 2009 that the typical household earned more than it did in 2007, when the recession began.