Those without health insurance climbed from 43.6 million in 2002 to 45 million in 2003, the largest number since the census began reporting the data in 1987. However, the percentage of Americans without insurance - 15.6 percent - was smaller than in 1998, when 16.3 percent of Americans did not have insurance.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey saw small increases last year in the ranks of the uninsured - up 0.1 percent in each state.
In Pennsylvania, nearly 1.4 million residents, or 11.4 percent, were uninsured in 2003. In New Jersey, 1.2 million people, or 14 percent of the population, had no health insurance in 2003, the fifth year the number has grown.
The number of poor Americans leapt by 1.3 million to 35.9 million. That is an increase from 12.1 percent to 12.5 percent. Most of that increase - 733,000 - was among children. Their poverty level rose from 16.7 percent to 17.6 percent, the largest one-year jump since 1991.
In Pennsylvania, poverty rose from 9.5 percent in 2002 to 10.5 percent last year, affecting 1.3 million people. In New Jersey, the poverty rate climbed slightly to 8.6 percent, or 741,000 people.
The findings are from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey, which queries 100,000 households annually nationwide by phone or in-person interviews.
Most experts see the numbers as indicators of individual and family well-being that mainly reflect the nation's sluggish economy in 2003. The year was marked by tepid job growth amid the continued loss of manufacturing jobs, declines in costly employer-provided health coverage, and funding cuts in state and federal health-insurance programs.
