According to the American Community Survey for 2006:
MAINE RANKED 34th nationally in median household income, behind Iowa ($44,491) and ahead of Idaho ($42,865).
MEN IN MAINE earned a median income of $40,116, compared with a median of $30,338 for women.
CLEVELAND WAS the poorest large city last year, with a median household income of $26,535. Plano, Texas, was the wealthiest large city, with a median of $77,038.
The number of poor families in Maine declined last year -- but so did the state's median household income.
A pair of Census Bureau reports released on Tuesday show that the state matched decreasing poverty rates nationwide but failed to keep pace with income gains in 2006.
The reports also show that the percentage of Maine residents without health insurance last year was below the national average.
About 8.7 percent of Maine families lived below the federal poverty line in 2006, down slightly from the 9 percent figure from the prior year.
The state's median household income decreased an estimated $700, to $43,439, last year.
That figure is approximately $5,000 lower than the national figure, and Maine was one of just 11 states to show declines in median household income last year.
The numbers come from two annual census assessments: the Current Population Report and the American Community Surveys, which track national and state data, respectively, on a variety of income trends.
Americans were generally better-off financially in 2006 than they were the year before, with poverty down and median household incomes up, but the number of those without health insurance continued to rise, the reports show.
Those who live outside metropolitan areas were the only segment of the population to report rising poverty rates and falling incomes.
The rural poverty rate climbed half a percentage point, to 15.2 percent, at a time when the overall poverty rate dropped from 12.6 to 12.3 percent, the first decrease since 2000.
The Census Bureau gathered its data through mail and telephone interviews, so the reports have varying levels of reliability.
The rural-urban disparity troubled demographers and advocates for children, who said economic gains in metropolitan areas have long concealed problems in rural regions.
"They're moving in opposite directions," said William O'Hare, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute.
The institute, which tracks rural issues, produced an analysis of the census reports that showed Maine was one of five states where the poverty rate among children outside cities increased 5 percent or more from 2000 to 2006.
O'Hare said the decline in Maine's overall poverty rate last year was caused by economic gains in urban areas.
"State leaders need to pay attention to what's happening in rural areas and not let the overall numbers mask the problems," he said.
O'Hare and Elinor Goldberg, president and CEO of the Maine Children's Alliance, said educational programs, affordable child care and tax incentives are key initiatives meant to address rural decline.
The state also needs to prioritize economic development projects that will benefit rural Mainers, Goldberg said.
"We're not just talking about poverty. What we're talking about is how do we make economic development work for all the citizens of Maine?" she said.
Another area where the state bucked national trends last year was in the number of residents without health insurance.
About 9.5 percent of Mainers went without insurance in 2006, compared with a national average that rose from 15.3 to 15.8 percent that year.
The number of uninsured Mainers -- approximately 124,000 -- sparked a flurry of statements from advocacy groups hours after the bureau released its reports.
The conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center said most of the uninsured last year were younger adults without children. The think tank argued for changes to state regulations that it said make health insurance unaffordable for younger residents.
Meanwhile, the liberal Maine Center for Economic Policy called on President Bush to hold off on plans to veto congressional bills that would expand health care benefits under the State Children's Health Insurance Program by $35 billion to $50 billion.
Staff Writer Elbert Aull can be contacted at 791-6325 or at:
eaull@pressherald.com
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