US Census Bureau released a report this week according to which only one in six people living in the US under the age of 65 had no health insurance in 2005.

The report was based on data from all states across gender, age and income gathered by the Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE), which is the only source for county-level estimates of health insurance coverage status.

The data helps analysts and policy makers to target outreach activities and other intervention strategies to increase coverage and access to needed health care services, Lynn Blewett, director of the State Health Access Data Assistance Center in Minneapolis, said.

The report also revealed that roughly a quarter of people living in Florida, Texas and New Mexico lacked health insurance. Texas had the highest percentage of uninsured residents under the age of 65, with 26.3 percent of the population lacking health coverage, followed by New Mexico with 24.2 percent, Florida with 24.0 percent, Nevada with 20.8 percent and Louisiana with 20.6 percent. California, with a population of 31.7 million, had the most uninsured people in numeric terms with 6.5 million, representing an uninsured rate of 20.5 percent

On the other hand, only one in ten of those living in Minnesota and Hawaii were without coverage. Minnesota had the lowest rate with 9.5 percent, or 428,033 out of a population of 4.49 million.

The data also showed that Hispanics were far less likely to have health insurance than African-Americans and white. In Texas, 40.5% of Hispanics under age 65 had no health insurance, compared with 24.3% of blacks and 15.8% of whites.

A separate report by the US Census Bureau including 2007 figures found an increase in health insurance coverage among children, Hispanics and whites. The report, made public in August, showed that the amount of uninsured decreased from 8.7 million in 2006 to 8.1 million during the following year.

Alwyn Cassill of the Center for Studying Health Care System Change believes that the rise is likely due to the increase in people covered by public programs.