“Household income among Hispanic Americans has just set a new record high.”
Is Hispanic household income at a record high, as Donald Trump says?
At a rally in Wheeling, W.Va, on Sept. 29, President Donald Trump touted economic advancement by Hispanic Americans.
“Household income among Hispanic Americans has just set a new record high,” Trump told the crowd.
Is that correct? We took a closer look.
Every year, the U.S. Census Bureau releases its annual Income and Poverty Report. The 2017 statistics, released in September 2018, contained the following chart showing median household income by race from 1967 to 2017.
The chart shows that the 2017 median household income for Hispanic-Americans of any race — $50,486 when adjusted for inflation — was higher than it was for any previous year.
Between 2010 and 2017, inflation-adjusted incomes for Hispanic households rose by about one-third.
The rise in Hispanic income wasn’t unusual — as the chart indicates, incomes have risen consistently for every racial and ethnic group since the recovery from the Great Recession began, with the exception of a recent downturn for Asian-Americans..
The timing of the income rise for Hispanic households means that this is not an accomplishment only for the Trump administration. Hispanic incomes began rising in 2011 and continued to increase for most of President Barack Obama’s administration. They have continued that rise under Trump.
Our ruling
Trump said that “household income among Hispanic Americans has just set a new record high.”
Census Bureau data confirms a new record high for inflation-adjusted, Hispanic household income in 2017, the most recent year for which data is available. This continues a rise that began under Obama, but Trump did not specifically claim credit, so we rate the statement True.
PolitiFact Rating: 
Our Sources
Donald Trump, remarks at a rally in Wheeling, W.Va., Sept. 29, 2018
U.S. Census Bureau, Income and Poverty Report, September 2018
U.S. Census Bureau, "Race and Hispanic Origin of Householder -- Households by Median and Mean Income," accessed Oct. 31, 2018
