Will the real child poverty rate please stand up?

Washington

AMERICA is on the mend. Witness the good news in the latest version of the nation's "economic report card": the Census Bureau's annual estimates of the median household income and the poverty rate.

Here are the crucial numbers. In 2015, median household income - the midpoint, with half of households above and half below - rose 5.2 per cent to US$56,500 from US$53,700 in 2014. That is the largest increase since the 2007-2009 recession, though household income remains below the pre-recession peak of US$57,423 in 2007. The story is similar for the poverty rate. It fell to 13.5 per cent in 2015 from 14.8 per cent in 2014, though (again) that compares unfavourably with the 2007 level of 12.5 per cent.