New Hampshire
New Hampshire’s Median Household Income Increased in 2023, Poverty Remained Steady
New data released by the U.S. Census Bureau provide key insights into the economic well-being of Granite Staters. The American Community Survey’s 2023 state-level data showed that median household income recovered to 2021 levels after adjusting for inflation, following a decline in 2022. While the median household income increased, the poverty rate held steady at 7.2 percent, reflecting that nearly 100,000 New Hampshire residents had very little income despite purchasing power growing for the median household.
Household Incomes
The estimated median household income in New Hampshire was $96,838, based on data collected by the American Community Survey during 2023. This median income estimate increased from the $89,992 estimated for 2022, even after adjusting for inflation and accounting for statistical uncertainty. After taking inflation into account, the median household income effectively rebounded to about 2021 levels; in 2022, median household income fell behind inflation, and spending power dropped relative to 2021. The 2023 data show this median income recovered to 2021 levels after the inflation adjustment of 2021 dollars to 2023 purchasing power. The inflation-adjusted 2023 household incomes were higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic and prior to the Great Recession of 2007-2009, and reflected the relative speed of the post-pandemic recovery compared to the slow recovery from the Great Recession.
Of the estimated 569,493 households in New Hampshire in 2023, 25 percent, or one in four, had pre-tax incomes below $50,000 annually. About 17 percent had incomes lower than $35,000, and nearly 11 percent had estimated incomes below $25,000 during 2023. About 48 percent had incomes over $100,000, and almost 16 percent had incomes of $200,000 or more.
The average household size in New Hampshire was 2.39 people in the 2023 data. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology estimated the living wage income for a two-person household in New Hampshire in 2024 was $67,155 for two adults, $88,074 for one adult with one child, and $97,876 for two working adults with one child. The Economic Policy Institute estimated the income a family needed in 2024 for a “modest yet adequate standard of living,” which does not include costs such as paying for student loans or for homeownership as well as for any form of entertainment, ranged from $72,501 to $94,597 for a household with two adults and one child, depending on where they lived in New Hampshire.
Poverty in New Hampshire
The U.S. Census Bureau calculates poverty thresholds for different household sizes. The Official Poverty Measure poverty threshold is not adjusted for changes in living costs between the 48 contiguous United States; other measures of hardship differ, such as the regional housing cost variations incorporated into the Supplemental Poverty Measure. The Official Poverty Measure thresholds for 2023 are $15,852 for a single person under 65 years old, $21,002 for a two-person household with one child and one adult under 65, $24,526 for a three-person household with one child, and $30,900 for a four-person household with two children.
An estimated 98,000 people lived with incomes below Official Poverty Measure poverty thresholds in 2023. This estimate is slightly larger than the estimated 2023 populations of Claremont, Concord, Laconia, and Portsmouth combined. That total number of people in poverty included about 20,000 children and 21,000 older adults.
The overall poverty rate in New Hampshire was 7.2 percent, according to the Official Poverty Measure, which was the same estimated rate as 2022 and 2021, and statistically indistinguishable from the 7.3 percent poverty rate from 2019. The poverty rate for children was 8.0 percent, which was statistically indistinguishable from the 2022 rate. Poverty for older adults, at an estimated 7.6 percent, was also substantially unchanged from 2022, but remained higher than it was in 2019.
New Hampshire had the lowest Official Poverty Measure poverty rate among the states, with Utah’s 9.0 percent and both Colorado’s and Minnesota’s 9.3 percent rates as the next closest estimates. However, other measures of hardship, also published by the U.S. Census Bureau in September, complicate that conclusion. Using the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which adjusts for certain expenses, taxes and noncash benefits, household compositions, and geographic differences in housing costs, New Hampshire’s 7.4 percent poverty rate for the 2021-2023 period was higher than Maine’s 5.9 percent; Maine’s rate was statistically tied for the lowest in the country with several other states, including Minnesota and South Dakota. The Supplemental Poverty Measure, while not a replacement of the Official Poverty Measure, can capture key economic conditions impacting household well-being that are missed by the Official Poverty Measure, such as the reduction of child poverty by half in 2021 due largely to the expansion of the Child Tax Credit.
Within the Official Poverty Measure data for New Hampshire, 2023 continued to show longstanding differences in economic hardship between groups, reflecting both historical and present-day barriers to opportunity that hinder upward mobility. While data limitations prevent a reliable, comprehensive analysis of 2023 data, the estimated poverty rate for Granite Staters identifying as of two or more races was higher than for white residents who did not identify as Hispanic or Latino. The poverty rate for New Hampshire residents who identified themselves as Asian was lower than for non-Hispanic white residents. Data to be published in December 2024 will provide more reliable insights into the well-being of groups and geographies within the Granite State.
Other Key Data
Beyond these topline numbers, the American Community Survey provides a wealth of information on the lives and well-being of Granite Staters. For example, about 51 percent of the estimated 149,626 renter households in New Hampshire paid more than 30 percent of their incomes on rent and utilities during 2023. About 13 percent of workers age 16 and over commuted out of state for employment, while about 16 percent worked from home. Income inequality, as measured by the Gini Index, is not higher than it was just before the COVID-19 pandemic, but is higher than it was in 2010. These data, as well as other information recently provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, provide additional insights into the well-being of Granite Staters.
– Phil Sletten, Research Director
The son of Cher is scheduled to be in court Wednesday for a hearing over allegations he broke into a New Hampshire home earlier this month.
It was the second arrest in a matter of days for Elijah Allman, 49, of Malibu, California, who was detained Feb. 27 after allegedly acting belligerently at a prestigious prep school in New Hampshire. It was unclear if Allman had any connection to either St. Paul’s School or the home in Windham, New Hampshire.
Allman remains in the Rockingham County Department of Corrections in what is called preventive detention, Superintendent Jonathan Banville said.
Allman, whose father was the late singer Gregg Allman, faces two counts of criminal mischief, one count of burglary and a count of breach of bail for breaking into the home on March 1. Police said in a report that Allman did not have permission to be at the home and forcibly entered it .
In the incident at the prep school, Allman was charged with four misdemeanors: two counts of simple assault, criminal trespass and criminal threatening. Allman was also charged with a violation of disorderly conduct, which is illegal in the state but not considered a crime.
At about 7 p.m. that day, Concord police responded to reports that Allman was disturbing people in the dining hall of St. Paul’s School. After charging Allman, police said he was released on bail as his case works through the court system.
Allman did not respond to an email requesting comment, and a phone number for him was not working. It was unclear from the court records if Allman has an attorney.
In December 2023, Cher filed a petition to become a temporary conservator overseeing her son’s money, saying Allman struggles with mental health issues and addiction have left him unable to manage his assets and potentially put his life in danger.
The petition from the singer and actress said Elijah Allman is entitled to regular payments from a trust fund. But “given his ongoing mental health and substance abuse issues,” she is “concerned that any funds distributed to Elijah will be immediately spent on drugs, leaving Elijah with no assets to provide for himself and putting Elijah’s life at risk,” the petition says.
A few weeks later, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jessica Uzcategui denied the request, saying she was not convinced that a conservatorship was urgently needed. Allman was in the courtroom with his his attorneys, who acknowledged his previous struggles but argued that he is in a good place now, attending meetings, getting treatment and reconciling with his previously estranged wife.
New Hampshire
Possible 2028 Democratic White House contenders weigh in on Iran with New Hampshire voters
As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran overtakes the foreign policy debate in Washington, two Democratic governors with potential 2028 presidential aspirations — Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear — recently traveled to New Hampshire, introducing themselves to the state’s famously engaged voters. The two weighed in on the war and both criticized and questioned President Trump’s strategy and endgame.
“If a president is going to take a country into war, and risk the lives of American troops and Americans in the region, he has to have a real justification and not one that seems to change every five to 10 hours,” Beshear told CBS News after a Democratic fundraiser in Keene.
“This President seems to use force before ever trying diplomacy, and he has a duty to sell it to the American people and to address Congress with it,” Beshear continued. “He hasn’t done any of that. In fact, it appears there isn’t even a plan for what success looks like. He’s gone from regime change to strategic objectives and now is talking about unconditional surrender, which isn’t realistic where he is.”
Beshear also said he thought that Congress should have reined in Mr. Trump’s war powers.
“He is trying to ignore Congress. He’s trying to even ignore the American people,” Beshear said.
He went on to note that the president’s State of the Union address took place “three — four days before he launched this attack,” and Mr. Trump “didn’t even have the respect to tell the American people the threat that he thought Iran posed to us.”
Last week, both the House and the Senate failed to pass resolutions to limit Mr. Trump’s war powers and stop him from taking further military action against Iran without congressional support.
For Newsom, the war with Iran constitutes part of a broader criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At an event last Tuesday in Los Angeles, Newsom had compared Israel to an “apartheid state.” Later, in New Hampshire, he sought to clarify his comment.
“I was specifically referring to a Tom Friedman [New York Times] column last week, where Tom used that word of apartheid as it relates to the direction Bibi is going, particularly on the annexation of the West Bank,” Newsom explained during a book tour event Thursday night in Portsmouth. “I’m very angry, with what he is doing and why he’s doing it, what he’s going to ultimately try to do to the Supreme Court there, what he’s trying to do to save his own political career.”
Friedman wrote that at the same time that the U.S. and Israel are prosecuting a war in Iran, within Israel, Netanyahu’s government has undertaken efforts to annex the West Bank, driving Palestinians from their homes; fire the attorney general who is leading the prosecution against Netanyahu for corruption; and block the government’s attempt to establish a commission to examine the failures that led up to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Jews by Hamas.
CBS News has reached out to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.
On Iran, Newsom said, “I’m very angry about this war, with all due respect, you know, not because I’m angry the supreme leader is dead. Quite the contrary. I’m not naive about the last 37 years of his reign. Forty-seven years since ’79 — the revolution,” Newsom said. “But I’m also mindful that you have a president who still is inarticulate and incapable of giving us the rationale of why? Why now? What’s the endgame?”
Many attendees at Newsom’s book event said that the situation in Iran is a top-of-mind issue for them, too. Some said they’re “horrified” by what is happening.
29-year-old Alicia Marr told CBS News she decided to attend Newsom’s event because of his social media response to the war with Iran.
“There was one spot left, and I decided to pick it up, and it was due to his response to the war, that it is just unacceptable, and I would agree with that,” Marr said.
While some voters like Marr are eager to hear about where potential candidates stand on foreign policy, many at Newsom’s event said they care most about how potential candidates plan to address domestic issues.
“I’m more focused on getting the middle class back on track and fighting the oligarchy, and I’m less invested in international issues,” said Anita Alden, who also attended Newsom’s event,
“I wouldn’t call myself America first, but we have so many problems at home that are my priority,” she told CBS News.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who may also be weighing another White House bid, told Fox 2 Detroit last week that she “unequivocally opposes” the Trump administration’s military action in Iran and urged Congress to take action.
“If we want to stop Donald Trump with this random decision that he has arrived at, then Congress must act, and Congress must act immediately. The American people do not want our sons and daughters to go into this unauthorized war of choice,” Harris said.
Mr. Trump has lashed out against Democrats who have pushed back on his Iran strategy, calling them “losers” last week and arguing that they would criticize any decision he made on Iran.
“If I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this,” the president said.
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