San Diego and Riverside county families are taking home, on average, only slightly more money than they made at the turn of the century, and poverty rates for both regions have increased, a new federal report shows.

The typical Riverside County household earned $53,508 last year, a 3 percent increase over the inflation-adjusted $51,895 average recorded for 1999, according to the 2006 American Community Survey and 2000 Census. Income data from the survey was released Tuesday.

In San Diego County, the median household income edged up 4.6 percent from $56,953 in 1999 to $59,591.

At the same time - even as unemployment remained low - the poverty rate swelled from 8.9 percent in 1999 to 11.7 percent last year in San Diego County and from 10.7 percent to 12.2 percent in Riverside County. Federal guidelines defined someone as living in poverty in 2006 if they were in a family of four that earned about $20,600 or less.

Christopher Thornberg, a Los Angeles economist, said the numbers are a clear reflection of California's recent demographic trends, which have been marked by more people moving out of California than are moving in from other states, and by an influx of predominantly low-skilled immigrants.

Thornberg said the trend is driving the widening gap between the highest and lowest wages in California.

"And the middle part of the scale is leaving the state," he said.

As for why the poverty rate rose at a time when unemployment was low, Thornberg said that is because many immigrants have been willing to settle for pay that is on the low end of the scale for California, but above what they would receive back home in another country.

"One man's poverty is another man's middle-class living," he said. "Perspective is everything."

Thornberg added that future reports could show declining average wages. The thousands of low-skilled, but highly paid construction jobs that flourished during the housing boom helped the regional economy stay a step ahead of inflation. But those jobs are now disappearing.

The American Community Survey, an annual snapshot of American families conducted by the Census Bureau, reported income and poverty rates for counties and cities with at least 65,000 residents Tuesday. A companion survey examined national health insurance rates.

Based on a comparison between the reports and inflation-adjusted incomes reported in the 2000 Census, Vista residents on average are making less than they did seven years ago - $50,162 last year compared to $51,540 in 1999.

Income growth was flat in Temecula and Escondido, when adjusted for inflation, while pay increased slightly in Murrieta, Oceanside and Carlsbad.

San Marcos residents, meanwhile, enjoyed the most generous household-income increase at 17.4 percent to $65,234, the statistics show.

In an apparent contradiction, however, the poverty rate increased from 12 percent to 13.1 percent in San Marcos, the reports state. However, Thornberg suggested that is not a contradiction because the uptick is explained by more people working jobs at relatively low wages.

The poverty rate also increased in Murrieta. The fast-growing city recently annexed - well after the 2000 Census was taken - the older, lower-income Murrieta Hot Springs neighborhood that is home to a large number of mobile homes and apartments.

The poverty rate remained unchanged in Carlsbad and Escondido. It increased in Vista and decreased in Oceanside.

Nationally, the poverty rate was 12.3 percent for 2006, up from 11.3 percent in 2000 but down slightly from 12.6 percent in 2005, said David Johnson, chief of the Census Bureau's Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division in Maryland.

The nation's median household income reached $48,200 last year, an increase of 0.7 percent over the year before when inflation is factored into the equation, Johnson said.

"For the second consecutive year, households in the United States experienced an increase in real annual median income," he told reporters in an online news conference Tuesday. "Even though overall household income has not yet recovered to its 1999 pe-recessionary peak of $49,200, the gap is narrowing."

According to a pair of reports released Tuesday, 47 million Americans and 6.6 million Californians did not have health insurance last year. The national rate of 15.8 percent is the highest in many years.

Meanwhile, Johnson said the poverty rate for senior citizens, those ages 65 and older, fell to 9.4 percent. That's the lowest since the government began keeping records in the 1960s, when about one-third of seniors lived in poverty.

While household incomes increased slightly last year across the nation, wages declined 1 percent.

Johnson said the apparent discrepancy is the result of more family members holding down full-time jobs and boosting household-income totals.

- Contact staff writer Dave Downey at ddowney@californian.com.