U.S. Poverty and Income Inequality in 9 Charts

Incomes in the U.S. climbed for the first time in eight years, and the poverty rate fell to a postrecession low, according to the Census Bureau’s annual report on income and poverty—the authoritative source on those topics. But despite a sharp improvement compared with 2014, historical context shows that many measures of income and poverty in 2015 remain worse than what the U.S. economy has achieved in the past.