The Roots of American Prosperity

Terence Jeffrey / September 12, 2024

Do native-born Americans have higher household incomes than naturalized citizens? It is a simple question the Census Bureau answered this week. The answer? No.

Do native-born Americans have higher household incomes than noncitizens? Yes.

In fact, when it comes to ranking household incomes by the nativity of the householder, according to the Census Bureau, households headed by naturalized citizens are at the top and those headed by noncitizens are at the bottom.

“Foreign-born householders can be classified into two categories: those who are naturalized U.S. citizens and those who are not U.S. citizens,” says the Census Bureau’s newly released report on income in the United States in 2023.

“Households maintained by naturalized citizens ($86,060) had the highest median incomes in 2023, followed by native-born individuals ($81,700),” the report says.

“Households maintained by noncitizens had the lowest median household income ($61,440),” it says.

The Census Bureau report also indicates that by 2023 the household income of Americans had recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic that struck the nation in 2020.

“Median household income was $80,610 in 2023, 4% higher than the 2022 estimate of $77,540,” says the report. “This is the first annual increase in median household income since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began. The 2023 median household income is not statistically different from the 2019 median household income of $81,210. Household income in 2019 was the highest since 1967, the highest ever recorded in this report.”

In fact, the historical data in the Census Bureau’s report shows that the median household income in the U.S. increased significantly in the years leading up to the pandemic. In 2016, the median household income was $73,520 in constant 2023 dollars. By 2019, that had grown by approximately 10.5% to $81,210.

In 2016, according to the report, 36.4% of American households had incomes that were $100,000 or greater. By 2019, that percentage had risen to 41.1%. By 2022, it had dropped to 38.9%. But in 2023, it rose again to 40.9%.

As this column has noted before, the Census Bureau’s annual income data demonstrates that certain characteristics correlate with higher household incomes—and with lower household incomes.

Maintaining a traditional family structure matters. Among married-couple families in the U.S., the median household income was $119,400 in 2023. When the family household was headed by a man without a spouse, the median income was $81,890. When it was headed by a woman without a spouse, the median income was $59,470.

Male householders without a family had a median income of $57,200. Female householders without a family had a median income of $42,140.

In other words, the median household income of a married-couple family ($119,400) in 2023 was more than twice the median income of nonfamily households headed by a man ($57,200) or woman ($42,140).

Earning a diploma also continued to matter in America.

“Householders with more education had higher income,” the Census Bureau says. “In 2023, households maintained by someone with at least a bachelor’s degree had the highest median income ($126,800), followed by those with some college ($73,610) and those with a high school diploma ($55,810).”

“Householders aged 25 and over with no high school diploma had the lowest median household income ($36,620),” says the report.

Thus, the median annual income of a householder who had earned a college degree or higher ($126,800) was more than twice as much as the median income of someone who had only earned a high school degree ($55,810).

In fact, the $70,990 difference between the median household income of someone who had earned a bachelor’s degree or higher and someone who had only graduated from high school would go a long way toward paying the $82,866 in charges that Harvard, according to its website, will levy this year for tuition ($56,550), fees ($5,126), housing ($12,922), and food ($8,268).

Another obvious factor that affects someone’s income is how much they work.

“Total workers (also referred to as ‘all workers’) include both part-time and full-time workers,” says the Census Bureau report. “A full-time, year-round worker is a person who worked at least 35 hours per week (full-time) and at least 50 weeks per year (year-round).”

In 2023, the Census Bureau reports, total workers had $50,310 in median earnings. Full-time, year-round workers, by contrast, had $61,440 in median earnings.

This Census Bureau’s new income report reinforces the lessons this column has noted before about the the agency’s income data. This nation’s prosperity is rooted in traditional families and hard work.

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