After getting slammed by the economic recession, Floridians are grappling with lower incomes and a higher poverty rate, according to a U.S. Census report released Tuesday.
Florida had a median household income of $44,243 in 2010, down from $45,631 a year earlier. The drop is even greater when the 2009 figures are adjusted to reflect the effects of inflation.
The report also said Florida had a two-year average poverty rate of 15.3 percent when calculated for 2009 and 2010. That compares with a 12.8 percent rate for 2007 and 2008.
Florida also continued to have one of the highest uninsured rates in the country, with 24.6 percent of people under age 65 lacking health coverage and 20.8 percent for the entire population. Those percentages were lower than in 2009, though the Census Bureau changed the way it calculated health-insurance figures.
Along with the high uninsured rate, Florida also had a lower median household income and a higher poverty rate than the overall country. As examples, the national median household income in 2010 was $49,445, and the uninsured rate for the total population was 16.3 percent.
