How Many Americans Are Uninsured? Health Insurance Statistics

Key Health Insurance Coverage Statistics

1. Almost 1 in 10 Americans are uninsured. A WorthInsurance analysis of U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey data from March 2022 shows 8% of Americans don’t have health insurance.
2. Uninsured rates are highest in the South. The four states with the highest rates of Americans without health insurance are Mississippi (14.4%), Texas (13.0%), Oklahoma (12.4%) and Georgia (12.0%).
3. Uninsured rates are lowest in the Northeast. Rhode Island (2.4%), Vermont (3.3%), District of Columbia (3.8%) and Hawaii (3.8%) have the lowest percentages of Americans without health insurance.
4. There are 23 states where the uninsured rate is above the 8.0% national average
5. Education seems to be one of the largest predictors of health insurance status.
6. 3.3% of Americans with a bachelor’s degree or higher report not having health insurance, compared to 20.9% of Americans without a high school diploma.
7. Only 1.6% of Americans 65 and older don’t have health insurance, compared to 13.0% of individuals ages 18-24.

How Many Americans Don’t Have Health Insurance?

Approximately 1 in 10 Americans, or 8.0%, don’t have health insurance, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey conducted in March 2022.

The first survey was conducted in late April and early May 2020, when 10.5% of Americans didn’t have health insurance.

In 2010, uninsured rates among Americans younger than 65 were 18.2%, and in 2019, it was 12.1%, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

In 2016, uninsured rates were 10.4% in the U.S.

Read More: Insurance Industry Statistics

Percentage of Americans Without Health Insurance

In 2022, 8.0% of Americans don’t have health insurance. In 2020, 8.6% of Americans didn’t have health insurance at any point during the year.

Who Is Least Likely To Have Health Insurance

The WorthInsurance analysis of studies on uninsured rates finds certain demographics correlate more highly with one’s health insurance status.

Individuals without a high school diploma, younger people, or those who live in the South are less likely to have health insurance of any kind.

Education

Just 3.3% of people with a bachelor’s degree or higher report not having health insurance. 

7.6% of people with some college or an associate degree don’t have health insurance.

More than 1 in 10 of individuals who complete high school or obtain a GED diploma but don’t attend college report not having any form of insurance.

More than 1 in 5 of people without a high school diploma report not having health insurance.

Gender

9.0% of men don’t have health insurance, while 7.0% of women don’t. The national average falls in between both genders at 8.0%.

Age

There is a large difference in uninsured rates across various age brackets. For example, young Americans lack health insurance at a much higher rate than older adults.

As people get older, uninsured rates decrease before dropping to a tiny fraction for people in the age of retirement.

1. 13.0% among those ages 18 to 24 are uninsured
2. 11.8% among those ages 25 to 39 are uninsured
3. 9.3% among those ages 40 to 54 are uninsured
4. 6.9% among those ages 55 to 64 are uninsured
5. 1.6% among those ages 65 and older are uninsured

Race

1. 17.0% of Hispanic/Latino Americans are uninsured.
2. 9.5% of Black Americans are uninsured.
3. 6.0% of Asian Americans are uninsured.
4. 5.4% of white Americans are uninsured.

Research funded by the National Institutes of Health showed the barriers some races frequently face in receiving health insurance.

Household income

The uninsured rate is double the national average at 16.0% for people who earn less than $25,000 per year. For those who earn $200,000 or more per year, the uninsured rate is 2.3%.

Once income reaches $50,000 for an individual, the uninsured rate decreases to 7.0%. More financially well-off Americans have 2.4% uninsured rates.

Household size

The average household size of 2.6 people has an uninsured rate of 5.3%, while households of 3 people are uninsured at 7.9%.

Meanwhile, a household with just one person has an uninsured rate of 6.9%, on average. And households with seven people or more have an 18.8% average uninsured rate.

Children in household

If there are children younger than 18 in a household, the rate of uninsured individuals is 10.2%, compared to 6.7% for households with no children.

Uninsured Rates By State

Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma and Georgia still have far higher rates of uninsured individuals than the national average of 8.0%. There are 23 states where the uninsured rate is above the 8.0% national average, according to the Census data analyzed by WorthInsurance.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) report states, “One reason that certain Southern states have lower insured rates is that they haven’t yet expanded their Medicaid programs to working people who otherwise can’t afford health insurance.”

States With The Highest/Lowest Uninsured Rates

More Health Insurance Statistics

1. 91.7% of people in the U.S. have health insurance.
2. 50.3% of the U.S. population has health insurance through their employer.
3. 39.% of Americans have public health insurance.
4. There are 117.5 million people in the U.S. who have private health insurance.
5. 64% of U.S. workers are covered by self-funded health insurance plans.
6. New Hampshire is the state with the highest average annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health insurance.

Sources

1. Census.gov
2. Valuepenguin.com
3. Statista.com
4. Wikipedia.org
5. CDC.gov
6. DiscoveryABA.com