RALEIGH – The U.S. Census Bureau released its 2024 American Community Survey (ACS) data, providing the latest picture of poverty, income, and health coverage in North Carolina. The numbers show that 12.5 percent of North Carolinians were living in poverty in 2024, showing no significant change since 2023.
This means more than 1.3 million North Carolinians struggled to make ends meet on less than about $32,000 a year for a family of four. North Carolina has the 17th highest poverty rate nationwide.
The child poverty rate is higher than overall poverty at 16.2 percent, meaning that over 374,000 children in North Carolina lived in poverty in 2024. Child poverty rates are regularly higher than the overall poverty rate due to a combination of factors, including the high costs of raising children, a lack of work policies supporting employees who are caregivers, and relatively low levels of public spending on children relative to adults and the elderly. North Carolina’s ranking is worse for child poverty, with the 15th highest rate in the nation.
The percent of North Carolinians without health insurance fell to 8.6 percent, down from 9.2 percent in 2023. Medicaid expansion, which went into effect in December 2023, played a major role in reducing the share of North Carolinians without health insurance. North Carolina bucked the national trend, where the unwinding of pandemic-related Medicaid policies led to an increase in uninsured people. But our state’s progress is at risk due to massive Medicaid cuts in the Republican megabill passed in July. Cuts in that bill mean that an estimated 515,000 people are at risk of losing health coverage.
“These data underscore the urgent need for policymakers to act,” said Logan Rockefeller Harris, Research Director at NC Budget & Tax Center. “The federal megabill will roll back health coverage and reduce critical supports like food assistance, while here in North Carolina lawmakers have failed to pass a budget that invests in families. Together, these choices threaten to deepen hardship instead of building opportunity.”
Other key North Carolina findings from the U.S. Census Bureau 2024 American Community Survey data include:
•Median household income was nearly $74,000, which kept pace with inflation but showed no significant change from 2023 after adjusting for rising costs.
•Racial inequities: Poverty rates were far higher among Latine (20.2 percent), Black (18.9 percent), and American Indian (17.1 percent) North Carolinians than for Asian (8.5 percent) and white (9.1 percent) North Carolinians. Multiracial North Carolinians also experienced elevated levels of poverty, at 15.3 percent. Inequality by race remains a persistent problem tied to discrimination and systemic racism that create barriers to economic opportunity.
The ACS data reflect the Official Poverty Measure (OPM), which provides a limited view of economic well-being. Other measures, such as the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), show the powerful role of policies like tax credits and health coverage expansions in reducing poverty. National data show that the federal Child Tax Credit lifted about 2.4 million children above the poverty line in 2024.
“Elevated poverty rates and racial inequities are not inevitable — they are the result of policy choices,” said Heba Atwa, Director of Legislative Advocacy at the NC Budget & Tax Center. “North Carolina policymakers can choose to pass a budget that strengthens families and communities, with policies like a state Child Tax Credit, and investments in child care, housing, and schools that would increase well-being across the state, instead of pursuing tax cuts that only benefit the wealthy.”
“Without a state budget that invests in North Carolinians — and with the looming threat of federal cuts in the megabill — families across the state risk falling further behind,” Atwa said.
