Washington ? The number of Americans living in poverty and without health insurance rose for the third straight year in 2003, the Census Bureau reported Thursday in a pair of reports that delivered a double dose of bad economic news for the Bush administration.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said the reports demonstrated the administration’s failed economic policies. President Bush’s supporters said the numbers didn’t reflect more recent economic gains, including the addition of 1.5 million jobs in the last year.

The reports provided a snapshot of Americans’ economic well-being in 2003, two full years after the end of the recession. Joel Naroff, an economist and president of Naroff Economic Advisers in Holland, Pa., said job growth was slow until last August while wages overall were stagnant. Many of those who did get jobs were faced with accepting scaled-back benefits and pensions plans.

“It was what was expected when you have a soft economy and people losing their jobs,” Naroff said. “It simply wasn’t a good year.”

There were 35.8 million people living in poverty last year, or 12.5 percent of the population. That was 1.3 million more than in 2002.

Children made up more than half the increase — about 800,000. The child poverty rate rose from 16.7 percent in 2002 to 17.6 percent.

More people lacked health insurance as well — about 45 million last year, or 15.6 percent, compared with 43.5 million, or 15.2 percent the previous year.

The rate of uninsured children was relatively stable at 11.4 percent, probably the result of recent expansions of coverage in government programs covering the poor and children, such as the state Children’s Health Insurance Program, analysts said.

Meanwhile, the median household income, when adjusted for inflation, remained basically flat last year at $43,318. Whites, blacks and Asians saw no noticeable change, but Hispanics’ income fell 2.6 percent, to $33,000.