New Census Numbers Suggest Wisconsin Strong on Health Coverage, Not So Strong on Income

Home 9 Family Economic Security 9 New Census Numbers Suggest Wisconsin Strong on Health Coverage, Not So Strong on Income

Yesterday, the U.S. Census Bureau released a batch of data from the American Community Survey (ACS), an annual survey of some 3 million households nationwide. The release includes data on health insurance coverage (for the first time), household income, and housing costs for 2008. Wisconsin remains a national leader in making health insurance available to residents. 9.1% of residents went without health insurance for all or part of 2008, tied for fifth best in the nation. For children under 18, the figure was better–5.2% of Wisconsin kids were uninsured in 2008, largely thanks to the success of our highly effective Badger Care Plus program and its predecessors. The ACS has a bigger sample size than the Current Population Survey (CPS)–for which poverty data was released a couple weeks ago–meaning reliable county-level data is available for the larger counties. Statewide, median household income in Wisconsin was $52,094, slightly less than in 2007. Income disparity based on race remains a huge problem in the state. For more information, see the tables below and our press release, as well as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s coverage of the numbers.


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