Independent New Hampshire Journalism · Northfield, NHThe Census Bureau’s American Community Survey put about 145,000 New Hampshire residents without health coverage in 2010 and about 62,000 in 2024. Adults under 45 had the highest estimated rates, topping out at a little under 1 in 11 for those 26 to 34.
Audio edition (9:01): a synthetic voice reads the article. The charts, tables and fact check are on this page.
The American Community Survey began asking every sampled household about health insurance in 2008. That year it estimated that 10.8 percent of New Hampshire’s civilian residents living outside institutions had no coverage of any kind, about 140,000 people. The figure stayed between 10 and 11.2 percent through 2013. By 2015 it was 6.3 percent. In 2024, the latest single year the Census Bureau had published as of October 2026, it was 4.5 percent, or an estimated 62,323 people.
Nationally, the same survey put the uninsured share at 15.1 percent in 2008 and 8.2 percent in 2024. New Hampshire started below the national rate and stayed there in every year of the series. The figures here are survey estimates, not a head count, and each carries a margin of error. For the state as a whole in 2024, the Census Bureau gives 4.5 percent plus or minus 0.4 points.
Sixteen years of the same question
The survey asks about each person’s coverage on the day the household answers, whether private, like a plan through an employer, or public, like Medicare or Medicaid. A person reporting no coverage is counted as uninsured. In its 2014 coverage report, the Census Bureau wrote that the survey’s health insurance questions “have remained unchanged since they were added to the survey in 2008,” and that the survey therefore provides “a longer view of change in health insurance coverage” than the bureau’s other coverage survey, whose questions were redesigned.
New Hampshire’s highest estimate came in 2010: 11.1 percent, or about 145,000 people. Its lowest came in 2024. The count fell by about 82,700 people from 2010 to 2024, a drop of 57 percent, while the population the survey covers grew by about 90,000.
Share of New Hampshire Residents Without Health Insurance
Civilian noninstitutionalized population, American Community Survey one-year estimates. Bars drawn to scale; the 2010 peak is the full width. No standard estimate exists for 2020.
Granite State Report · Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey one-year estimates, table B27001, 2008–2024. Percentages are Granite State Report arithmetic from the bureau’s counts of people with no health insurance coverage and the population surveyed; they match the bureau’s own published rates for 2013, 2014 and 2024.
What changed after 2013
The biggest move in the record came over two survey years. In 2013 the survey counted about 140,000 uninsured New Hampshire residents, 10.7 percent. In 2014 it counted about 120,000, 9.2 percent, a decline the Census Bureau marked as statistically significant in its report on 2014 coverage. In 2015 the estimate was about 83,000, or 6.3 percent. From 2013 to 2015 the count fell by about 57,000, or 41 percent.
Those were the first two years of the federal health law’s main coverage provisions. The Census Bureau’s 2014 report said that “many more of the main provisions went into effect on January 1, 2014, including the expansion of Medicaid eligibility and the establishment of health insurance marketplaces,” and that “decreases in the uninsured rates between 2013 and 2014 are consistent with what some provisions of the ACA intended.” The same report listed New Hampshire among states that had not expanded Medicaid as of Jan. 1, 2014.
New Hampshire expanded Medicaid later that year. According to a KFF fact sheet published in March 2015, the state implemented the expansion on Aug. 15, 2014, through its existing Medicaid managed care plans, and federal regulators approved a waiver in March 2015 to move the newly eligible adults into private marketplace plans paid for by Medicaid as of Jan. 1, 2016. The survey data show when the drop happened. They do not by themselves say how much of it came from Medicaid, the marketplace, employers or anything else.
A narrated summary of this article (1:22), read by a synthetic voice. Photograph of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon: Ken Gallager, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Charts: Granite State Report from Census Bureau figures. Because it adapts a CC BY-SA 3.0 photograph, this video is offered under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Who still goes without
Almost everyone 65 and older has coverage, mostly through Medicare. In 2024 the survey put the uninsured rate for New Hampshire residents of that age at 0.6 percent. For residents under 19 it was 2.3 percent. The gap is among working-age adults, where 6.5 percent of New Hampshire residents from 19 to 64 had no coverage.
The highest estimates were among adults under 45: 8.8 percent for those 26 to 34, 7.7 percent for those 19 to 25 and 6.8 percent for those 35 to 44. Those figures carry margins of error of 1.4 to 1.6 points, so the survey cannot rank the three groups against one another. The 19-to-25 and 26-to-34 rates were well under the national rates for the same ages, which were about 14 percent.
Uninsured Rate by Age, 2024
Percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population with no health insurance coverage. New Hampshire margins of error are at the 90 percent confidence level.
| Age | New Hampshire | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Under 19 | 2.3% (±0.6) | 6.0% |
| 19 to 25 | 7.7% (±1.6) | 14.0% |
| 26 to 34 | 8.8% (±1.5) | 14.1% |
| 35 to 44 | 6.8% (±1.4) | 11.7% |
| 45 to 54 | 5.7% (±1.1) | 9.9% |
| 55 to 64 | 4.6% (±0.9) | 7.4% |
| 65 and older | 0.6% (±0.2) | 0.8% |
| 19 to 64 | 6.5% (±0.6) | 11.3% |
| All ages | 4.5% (±0.4) | 8.2% |
Granite State Report · Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 one-year estimates, table S2701.
How New Hampshire compares
Among the 50 states in 2024, only Massachusetts, at 2.8 percent, Hawaii, at 3.5 percent, and Vermont, at 4.2 percent, had lower estimated uninsured rates than New Hampshire. The District of Columbia’s estimate was also 4.5 percent. Texas had the highest, at 16.7 percent.
The ranking near the top is less firm than a list makes it look. Comparing New Hampshire with each state using the bureau’s published margins of error, at the 90 percent confidence level those margins represent, New Hampshire’s rate was measurably higher than the rates in Massachusetts and Hawaii and measurably lower than New York’s, at 5.0 percent, and every other state above it. It could not be told apart from Vermont’s rate or from Rhode Island’s, at 4.6 percent. In statistical terms, New Hampshire ranks somewhere from third to fifth: behind Massachusetts and Hawaii, ahead of every other state, and indistinguishable from fellow New England states Vermont and Rhode Island.
New England Uninsured Rates, 2024
Percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population with no health insurance coverage, with the U.S. rate for reference. Bars drawn to scale; the U.S. rate is the full width.
Granite State Report · Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 one-year estimates, table S2701.
What the numbers measure
The survey asks about coverage on the day a household answers, so its rate is the share of people uninsured at the time of the interview, averaged across the year. The Census Bureau’s other coverage survey, the Current Population Survey, asks about coverage at any time in the previous calendar year. The bureau says the two measure different concepts, so this article uses only the community survey. Both cover the civilian population living outside institutions such as prisons and nursing homes.
There is no standard 2020 figure. In July 2021 the Census Bureau said it would not release its standard 2020 one-year estimates because of the pandemic’s effect on data collection, and issued experimental estimates instead, which it urged caution in using. The charts on this page leave that year blank.
As published in October 2026, the Census Bureau had scheduled the 2025 one-year estimates for release on Oct. 29, 2026, and said the 2025 survey included new and modified content on health insurance coverage among other topics. The bureau scheduled an Oct. 15, 2026 webinar to discuss that new and modified content, including changes to the questions and the data.
Granite State Report earlier looked at coverage, cost and access in “New Hampshire Healthcare Access in 2025: Optimizing Coverage.” That article cited an outside estimate of about 4.7 percent uninsured, which matches the survey’s 2023 figure. The longer record shows how the state got there: a rate that held between 10 and 11.2 percent for six years, fell by more than four points in two, and has drifted lower since, with a higher estimate in 2019 along the way.
— Granite State Report
Your Turn
Tell us: have you gone without health coverage in New Hampshire, or lost it when a job or a Medicaid renewal changed? What did it cost you, and how did you get covered again? Write to granitestatereport@gmail.com. No person or agency named in this article was asked to comment for it. Any of them may write to the same address; a response will be added here with its date.
Fact check
| # | Claim | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The survey’s health insurance questions were added in 2008 and remained unchanged through at least the 2014 report; the bureau’s description of the longer view is quoted exactly. | VERIFIED | Smith and Medalia, Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2014, P60-253. |
| 2 | New Hampshire: 10.8 percent uninsured in 2008 (140,309 of 1,299,356); between 10.2 and 11.1 percent each year from 2008 through 2013; 6.3 percent in 2015; 4.5 percent and 62,323 people in 2024. | VERIFIED | Census Bureau, ACS one-year estimates, table B27001, 2008–2015 and 2024; Granite State Report arithmetic. The 2024 rate and count match table S2701. |
| 3 | U.S.: 15.1 percent in 2008 and 8.2 percent in 2024; New Hampshire’s rate was below the U.S. rate in every year shown. | VERIFIED | Census Bureau, ACS one-year estimates, table B27001, 2008–2019 and 2021–2024; table S2701 (2024). |
| 4 | New Hampshire’s 2024 margin of error is plus or minus 0.4 points at 90 percent confidence. | VERIFIED | Census Bureau, ACS 2024 one-year, table S2701. |
| 5 | Highest estimate 11.1 percent and 145,013 people in 2010; count down 82,690 (57 percent) from 2010 to 2024; surveyed population up 90,220. | VERIFIED | Census Bureau, ACS one-year estimates, table B27001; Granite State Report arithmetic. |
| 6 | 2013: about 140,000 and 10.7 percent; 2014: about 120,000 and 9.2 percent; the bureau marked the change significant. | VERIFIED | P60-253, Table A-1; Census Bureau, ACS one-year estimates, table B27001. |
| 7 | 2015: about 83,000, 6.3 percent; 2013 to 2015 count fell by 56,864, or 41 percent. | VERIFIED | Census Bureau, ACS one-year estimates, table B27001; Granite State Report arithmetic (140,252 to 83,388). |
| 8 | The bureau’s sentences on provisions taking effect Jan. 1, 2014, and on the 2013–2014 decreases are quoted exactly; New Hampshire was listed as not expanding Medicaid as of Jan. 1, 2014. | VERIFIED | P60-253, text and Table A-1. |
| 9 | New Hampshire implemented the Medicaid expansion on Aug. 15, 2014, through existing managed care plans; CMS approved a waiver on March 4, 2015, to move newly eligible adults into marketplace plans as of Jan. 1, 2016. | ATTRIBUTED | KFF, Medicaid Expansion in New Hampshire, March 27, 2015. |
| 10 | 2024 uninsured rates by age for New Hampshire and the United States, and the stated margins of error, as shown in the table. | VERIFIED | Census Bureau, ACS 2024 one-year, table S2701. |
| 11 | The 19-to-25, 26-to-34 and 35-to-44 rates cannot be ranked against one another; the 26-to-34 rate is measurably above the 45-to-54 rate. | VERIFIED | Granite State Report test from the published margins: 26–34 vs. 19–25, z = 0.83; 26–34 vs. 35–44, z = 1.60; 19–25 vs. 35–44, z = 0.70; 26–34 vs. 45–54, z = 2.74 (threshold 1.645). |
| 12 | 2024 state rates: Massachusetts 2.8, Hawaii 3.5, Vermont 4.2, New Hampshire 4.5, District of Columbia 4.5, Rhode Island 4.6, New York 5.0, Maine 5.5, Connecticut 5.8, Texas 16.7 (highest). | VERIFIED | Census Bureau, ACS 2024 one-year, table S2701, all states. |
| 13 | New Hampshire is measurably different from Massachusetts, Hawaii, New York and every state with a higher estimate, and not from Vermont or Rhode Island. | VERIFIED | Granite State Report tests at 90 percent confidence from published, rounded margins: z = 6.25 (Massachusetts), 2.91 (Hawaii), 0.68 (Vermont), 0.23 (Rhode Island), 1.99 (New York), 2.21 or more for every higher state. |
| 14 | The ACS measures coverage at the time of the interview; the CPS measures coverage at any time in the prior calendar year; the two measure different concepts; both cover the civilian noninstitutionalized population. | VERIFIED | P60-253, report text. |
| 15 | The bureau said July 29, 2021 it would not release standard 2020 one-year estimates and would issue experimental estimates, urging caution. | VERIFIED | Census Bureau release CB21-123, July 29, 2021. |
| 16 | The 2025 one-year estimates were scheduled for Oct. 29, 2026; the 2025 survey includes new and modified content including health insurance coverage; an Oct. 15, 2026 webinar was set to discuss changes to the questions and data. | VERIFIED | Census Bureau release CB26-164, Oct. 13, 2026. |
| 17 | GSR’s September 2025 article cited about 4.7 percent uninsured; the survey’s 2023 figure was 4.7 percent. | VERIFIED | Granite State Report, Sept. 15, 2025; Census Bureau, ACS one-year estimates, table B27001, 2023 (65,615 of 1,386,016). |
| 18 | The photograph is by Ken Gallager, taken in October 2015, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0. | VERIFIED | Wikimedia Commons file page, read Oct. 17, 2026. |
Coverage data, enrollment records and the dates on them are what build the record. Confidentiality respected where possible. granitestatereport@gmail.com · (603) 931-9264.
Editor’s note. Coverage figures are drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey one-year estimates, tables B27001 and S2701, for 2008 through 2024. Context on the 2014 changes is drawn from the bureau’s report Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2014 and from KFF’s fact sheet on Medicaid expansion in New Hampshire. Release information is from Census Bureau news releases of July 29, 2021 and Oct. 13, 2026. Rates for years other than 2013, 2014 and 2024, changes in counts and the significance tests are Granite State Report arithmetic from the bureau’s figures.
Corrections: Granite State Report corrects verified errors promptly and appends a dated note identifying what changed and when. The corrections policy and the corrections register are public, and correction notes are never removed.
