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There were 42,447,000 renter households in America in 2013, according to the new data for that year from the American Community Survey. Of that number, 10,384,000 paid more than 50 percent of their income for rent.
About 3,658,000 paid 40.0 to 49.9 percent of their household income for rent. That's a total of more than 14 million households that pay more than 40 percent of income for rent. That is one-third of all renter households.
The median rent for all occupied rental units (excluding those for which no rent was paid) was $905.
The 2013 American Community Survey provides a multitude of statistics that measure the social, economic and housing conditions of U.S. communities. More than 40 topics are available with the new data release, such as educational attainment, housing, employment, commuting, language spoken at home, nativity, ancestry and selected monthly homeowner costs. Also released were two reports providing analysis on income and poverty for states and large metropolitan areas.
The data on income and income inequality has a few surprising and disturbing tidbits of news. There were no major declines in household income. However, income inequality increased in 15 states. It only declined in one state, Alaska.
Income
According to the report Household Income: 2013, which compares American Community Survey statistics from 2012 to 2013:
Income Inequality
- For 2013, median household incomes were lower than the U.S. median ($52,250) in 28 states and higher in 19 states and the District of Columbia.
- In 2013, the states with the highest median household incomes were Maryland ($72,483) and Alaska ($72,237), which were not statistically different from each other. Mississippi had the lowest ($37,963).
- Median household income among the 25 most populous metro areas was highest in the Washington, D.C. ($90,149), San Francisco ($79,624) and Boston ($72,907) metro areas.
Household Income: 2013 also examined the Gini index for states and large metro areas. The Gini index is a summary measure of income inequality, ranging from 0 — complete equality — to 1 — complete inequality. This index, names for a man named Gini, is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income distribution of a nation's residents.
Among the findings:
- Five states and the District of Columbia had Gini indexes higher than the U.S. index of .481.
- Thirty-six states had lower Gini indexes than the U.S. index of .481.
- The Gini index of 15 states increased from 2012 to 2013. Alaska was the only state to have a decrease. All other states saw no significant change.
Read the Press release
Click for access to detailed data on housing and other topics
