10 simple charts that show the wild ways America has changed since 2010
America's population has steadily grown over the decade.
The 2010s were a decade of economic recovery.
After the darkest days of the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009, gross domestic product, a broad measure of overall economic activity, grew at a steady rate throughout the decade.
The labor market has also steadily improved over the decade.
Unemployment was as high as 10% in 2010 in the wake of the recession, and has declined to its current level below 4%.
Job growth, another key metric of the labor market, has also been steady throughout the decade.
The US is currently enjoying a record 110-month-long streak of net monthly job creation.
Average hourly wage growth was low in the wake of the recession, but has begun accelerating more recently.
However, wage growth remains weaker than many economists would have expected given low unemployment and continued strong job growth.
Similarly to wages, total income growth for the typical household was mostly flat through the first half of the decade, but has accelerated over the last few years.
Adjusted for inflation, the typical household's income was about 11% higher in 2018 than in 2010.
Americans have continued a decades-long pattern of becoming more educated.
The share of people age 25 and over with at least four years of college rose from about 30% in 2010 to 35% in 2018.
That increased level of education has come with a price, however, as student debt levels have nearly doubled since the start of the decade.
According to the New York Fed's quarterly report on American consumer debt, the total outstanding balance of student loans has risen from about $758 billion at the start of 2010 to just under $1.5 trillion as of Q3 2019, a 98% increase. The student-debt crisis could hamper the economic prospects of millennials and Gen Z into the 2020s and beyond.
The American population has gradually been getting older.
About 16% of the population was over 65 years old in 2018, up from 13% in 2010.
America has become more diverse over the last decade.
The share of Americans identifying as non-Hispanic white dropped from 64% in 2010 to 60% in 2018.
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