The poverty rate dropped sharply, and median incomes charted their first increase since the Great Recession, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Department.

The official poverty rate fell 1.2 percentage points between 2014 and 2015 to 13.5%, and the number of people in poverty fell by 3.5 million, Census said. The threshold for a family of two adults and two children to be considered living in poverty was $24,036.