Life gets less comfy in Indiana :Bill Ruthhart

Hoosiers are working less, earning smaller pay raises and increasingly going without comforts such as a second vehicle.

That's what the beginning of the economic recession did to us in the summer of 2008, according to data released Monday from the annual American Community Survey, a look at life built on information from 3 million U.S. households.

"What we're seeing here is the belt-tightening that was already in effect in 2008," said Carol Rogers, a census expert and deputy director of the Business Research Center at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

"But this doesn't show as much of the change as we've felt this year. It shows the start, and we're not going to see the depth of the recession reflected in the data until next year."

The census data found that the percentage of Indiana homeowners with fewer than two vehicles increased to 27.9 percent in 2008 from 26.6 percent the previous year. Most metro-area counties fell into this category, except Hancock and Morgan, where the percentage of homeowners with two vehicles increased.

"It is our more blue-collar and agricultural counties that saw a reduction," said Carol Rogers, a census expert. "Hancock and Morgan also have a large number of commuters, which might drive these numbers."

The Star also looked at income, workweeks and health insurance to see how Hoosiers fared.

Income: Indiana's median household income increased slightly to $47,966 from $47,488 the year before. But that 1 percent increase was much less than the 4.5 percent jump from 2006 to 2007.

Hamilton County remains one of the most affluent counties in the nation. For the second straight year, it ranked No. 15 in median household income among the 780 counties in the survey. Its average increased to $85,234 from $81,916 in 2007.

Hours: Statewide, Hoosiers are working an average of 38.7 hours a week, down from 39.1 in 2007, an indication of the state's growing unemployment rate.

The average workweek shrank by less than one hour in each of the surveyed counties in the metro area, with the exception of Morgan, which Rogers said might reflect that the county has "a much more sensitive set of hourly industries."

Health Insurance: More than 870,000 Hoosiers lacked health insurance coverage, according to the census data. Almost 18 percent, or 704,207, of those ages 18 to 64 were uninsured -- a percentage that ranked Indiana 24th among U.S. states. Just 16 states had a higher percentage of uninsured children than Indiana, where 10 percent (or 160,360 children) lacked coverage.