Washington ? The ranks of the uninsured swelled by 2.4 million last year as insurance costs kept rising and more Americans lost their jobs and health care coverage.

The number of people without health insurance the entire year rose to 43.6 million, a jump of almost 6 percent from 2001 and the second consecutive annual increase, the Census Bureau said in a report being released today. The percentage of Americans without health coverage rose from 14.6 to 15.2.

The bureau reported a survey last week that found more people fell into poverty and median income declined in 2002, even though the recession officially ended in November 2001.

Reflecting the broad scope of the recession and its aftermath, significant increases in uninsured rates occurred among whites, blacks, people 18 to 64, and middle- and higher-income earners. Rates increased in all regions of the country except the West.

A survey released this month from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy research group, found that private health premiums increased 13.9 percent between 2002 and 2003. A family policy, on average, cost $9,068.

Loss of coverage stemming from layoffs and scaled-back benefits was primarily to blame, Census Bureau analyst Robert Mills said. In 2002, 61.3 percent of U.S. residents were covered under an employment-based policy, down from 62.6 percent in 2001.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson noted that the uninsured rate for children was relatively unchanged at 11.6 percent, and that there were expansions in coverage in two programs aimed at covering the poor and children — Medicaid and the state Children’s Health Insurance Program.

The White House pointed to other proposals in President Bush’s 2004 budget request, such as $89 billion in health care tax credits to help those who do not have employer-based coverage, as ways to get more people covered.

“The president is committed to getting the economy growing faster so the number of unemployed and uninsured Americans will go down,” Bush spokeswoman Claire Buchan said.

But John Holahan, a health care policy expert at the Urban Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank, said increases through Medicaid and CHIP haven’t helped lower- and middle-income adults who are out of jobs but ineligible for public assistance.

“This is the second punch of the double whammy — you lose your job, then you lose your health insurance,” said Rep. Pete Stark of California, senior Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee, blaming the insurance losses on the “Bush jobless recovery.”

The latest data comes amid recent signs of an economic resurgence. The Commerce Department reported Monday that consumer spending rose a strong 0.8 percent in August after a 0.9 percent surge in July.

Americans’ disposable incomes, or what’s left after taxes, also rose 0.9 percent in August after a 1.5 percent jump the previous month. The government credited the increase to President Bush’s tax cut, which lowered federal tax withholdings and boosted people’s take-home pay.

Those trends would not be reflected in the latest Census Bureau estimates based on a survey of 78,000 homes between February and April of this year. The questionnaire asked about a person’s health coverage in the previous year.

The 6 percent rise in uninsureds marked the biggest jump since a 9 percent increase between 1991 and 1992. However, Census Bureau officials warned that data before and after 1999 were not fully comparable because of survey changes with more detailed questions about health coverage now being asked.