The information was part of a national Census Bureau report that showed that fewer Americans were uninsured in 2011 than in 2010, even though the country’s median household income declined. That report is based on a survey of about 100,000 households. 

Next week, the Census Bureau will release a similar report with statistics on income and insurance, but it will be based on a survey of 3 million households, according to a news advisory issued Wednesday by the Iowa Fiscal Partnership.  

The partnership notes that the state statistics in next week’s report are considered by the Census Bureau to be more reliable. 

The Iowa Fiscal Partnership is a joint public policy analysis initiative of the Iowa Policy Project and the Child and Family Policy Center.   

Today’s national census report showed:

• Real median household income in the United States in 2011 was $50,054, a 1.5 percent decline from the 2010 median and the second consecutive annual drop.
• The nation’s official poverty rate in 2011 stayed at 15 percent, with 46.2 million people in poverty. After three consecutive years of increases, neither the poverty rate nor the number of people in poverty were statistically different from the 2010 estimates.
• The percentage of Americans without health insurance coverage declined from 16.3 percent in 2010 to 15.7 percent in 2011.

Iowa statistics show that the percentage of Iowans who have private insurance through their employers dropped from 62 percent to 60 percent. The percentage of Iowans who are covered by Medicaid, the government insurance plan for poor and disabled Iowans, went up, while the percentage of Iowans covered by Medicare went down.