U.S. Poverty Statistics (2024)

The following is a snapshot of U.S. poverty statistics, including the overall poverty rate and the ranking of poverty rates by race and other population attributes. The data is from the U.S. Census Bureau for the year 2021, released on September 13, 2022 [i]. The data is presented from the highest category experiencing poverty to the lowest.

The Lowest Poverty Rate

The poverty rate of 10.5% in 2019 was the lowest recorded poverty level since the Census Bureau began reporting poverty in 1959.

Ever since the poverty level has been tracked in the United States there has been a stubborn 10% of the population in poverty. For further analysis and discussion seePoverty and Spending over the Years.

Poverty Rankings

Adults not working – 30%
Adults without a high school diploma – 27%
Adults with a disability – 25%
Single moms – 23%
Black Americans – 20%
Foreign born non-citizens – 19%
Hispanic Americans – 17%
Children – 15%
Single Dads – 12%
Seniors – 10%
Married couples – 5%
Adults with a college degree – 4%
Full-time working adults – 2%

Overall Poverty Rate

The U.S. poverty rate increased to 11.6% in 2021 from 11.4% in 2020. Prior to 2020, the poverty rate had fallen each year for six years from 14.8% in 2014. More.

SPM Poverty Measure

The Census issues two poverty measures – The original at 11.6% and the SPM at 7.8%. Here is the explanation.

Full U.S. Poverty Statistics Are Shown Below:

The total population of the U.S. was 328.2 million in 2021 and 37.9 million were in poverty. Therefore, the overall Poverty Rate for the year 2021 was 11.6%.

U.S. Poverty Statistics – Age of the Population

The Poverty Rate for seniors was 10.3% which is lower than the population as a whole of 11.6%. This is due to the Social Security and Medicare Programs which have worked well at protecting seniors from poverty. Seniors in a poverty status generally did not work ten or more years and pay enough taxes into the Social Security system to generate an adequate retirement pension.

The child Poverty Rate is 15.3%, therefore, about one in six children are in poverty. This is a disturbing poverty statistic to many Americans because children are helpless to influence their living conditions. Many of these children live in single-parent families as shown below.

U.S. Poverty Statistics – Race

While the poverty rate for the population as a whole is 11.6% the rate varies greatly by race. Blacks have the highest poverty rate at 19.5% and Non-Hispanic whites have the lowest at 8.1%.

The Poverty rate for Blacks and Hispanics is more than double that of non-Hispanic Whites.

U.S. Poverty Statistics – Families

Overall 8.8% of the families in America are in poverty. Families headed by a single mother have a Poverty Rate of 23.0% – almost five times higher than married-couple families.

There are 15.6 million families headed by a single mother which represents 19% of all families in America. But 3.6 million of these single mother families are in poverty which accounts for an astounding 49% of all the families in poverty. These statistics are the basis for the conclusion that marriage is one of the best defenses against poverty.

U.S. Poverty Statistics – Population in Families

U.S. Poverty Statistics – Working-Age Adults

Adults that work full time have a low Poverty Rate of 1.8%, which is not surprising. The 2.3 million full-time workers that are in poverty generally have low-paying jobs, such as a minimum wage job paying $16,000 per year, and have two or more children thus pushing the family into poverty.

There are 46.1 million adults between the ages of 18 and 64 (working age) that are not working. 13.8 million are in poverty or 29.9%. They total 23% of working-age adults but account for 66% of working-age adults in poverty.

Here is information on why adults are not working.

U.S. Poverty Statistics – Disability

16.0 million working-age adults have a disability which represents 8% of the workforce [ii]. They have a Poverty Rate of 24.9%. While this is a high rate of poverty it is less than the nonworking adult rate of 29.9% (See working-age adults above).

U.S. Poverty Statistics – Residence

The Poverty Rate for those living in cities is less than for those living in rural areas. Many Americans would guess low-income Americans are disproportionately from metropolitan areas but that is not the case.

U.S. Poverty Statistics – Nativity and Citizenship

Foreign-born non-citizens have a Poverty Rate of 18.5% – almost twice as high as foreign-born, naturalized citizens of 10.6%.

These citizens make up 7% of the U.S. population but account for 12% of all Americans in poverty.

Foreign-born naturalized citizens had a Poverty Rate of 10.6% which is slightly less than the population as a whole of 11.6%.

U.S. Poverty Statistics – Educational Attainment

The educational level attained by individuals has a dramatic impact on poverty. 27.2% of adults over 25 years old without a high school diploma are in poverty versus 4.1% for those with a college degree.

More Information

Here is information on the poverty gap which defines the resources necessary to move individuals and families out of poverty ===>

Here is information on the U.S. Poverty Rate versus welfare spending =>

Comparison of Original and SPM Poverty Measures

The Census Bureau releases two poverty figures, each with different assumptions and conclusions. The Census labels the studies “Original” and “SPM” (Supplemental Poverty Measure). The original is what is shown and described on this webpage. It is a measure of income earned by individuals and families which is then compared to a poverty threshold. Income below the threshold is defined as being in poverty. The Original measure is a determination of financial independence. Income is from jobs, self-employment and investments. Therefore, an income level greater than the poverty threshold means the individual or family has earned enough to transcend poverty. They are financially independent.

The second measure, the SPM, adds government benefits to the income of the individual or family. Therefore, it can be thought of as a measure of whether the individual or family is living in poverty after government transfer payments are included in the analysis. These transfer payments include covid stimulus payments and entitlement programs including welfare from federal, state, and local sources. For instance, if a family gets SNAP payments for food it is included as income because it represents an increase in their standard of living.

The SPM also uses a different method to measure the poverty threshold. It looks at the costs of living in various geographic areas and establishes a poverty level unique to each area based on housing, food, and other costs of the area. It also factors in expenses such as taxes, healthcare, and childcare costs as deductions to income. In the end, if an individual or family has an adjusted income lower than the poverty level they are considered to be living in poverty.

The Original methodology reports a poverty rate of 11.6% for 2021. The SPM reports a 7.8% poverty rate. Therefore, 11.6% of the population does not make enough earnings to be financially independent of poverty, however, only 7.8% of the population live in poverty after the inclusion of government transfer payments. The SPM does not include charitable contributions available to low-income Americans such as food banks and health services. Therefore the 7.8% rate is probably high.

The highest level of transfer payments ever distributed in America occurred in 2021. This was the result of various Covid Pandemic legislation which included stimulus payments, expanded unemployment payments, and increases to the Child Tax Credit, SNAP, and other welfare programs. While the increase in transfer payments due to the pandemic beginning in 2020 had bipartisan support, the legislation in 2021 had no Republican support in Congress. That added controversy to the high level of transfer payments. On the one hand, they made life easier for many Americans and resulted in pulling almost 3% of the population out of poverty. But on the other hand, the payments were financed by deficit spending (“printing” more money) which arguably caused the high levels of inflation experienced in late 2021 and throughout 2022.It also has contributed to the lower levels of adults participating in the workforce, as analyzed below.

Unemployment Rate Compared to Poverty Rate

The graph to the right shows the poverty level compared to the unemployment rate since 1965 [vii]. Even in times of low unemployment, the poverty level has never dropped below 10% of the population. It appears as though jobs and opportunity alone do not explain a stubborn 10% of the population in poverty. This is in fact the case, as shown below in the reasons people in poverty are not working.

Here is a comparison of welfare dollars spent per person in poverty versus the poverty rate for the last 50 years.

Coronavirus and its Impact on Working Adults

The Coronavirus Epidemic caused an economic shutdown throughout 2020 and 2021. As shown in the chart to the left, the labor participation rate declined during the Pandemic and has not recovered yet [viii]. The Labor Participation Rate is the percentage of working-age adults that are employed. In December 2019, before the Pandemic, the Labor Participation Rate was 63.3%. In December 2022, the rate was 62.3%, representing a loss of about three million workers. See more at Covid and work.

Analysis of Working-Age Adults In Poverty

In 2020 there are 20.6 million working-age adults(adults 18-64 years of age) in poverty (this figure increased to 21.0 million in 2021). 13.1 million or 63% did not work in the year and another 6.0 million or 29% spent worked part-time or spent at least part of the year out of the workforce. Only 1.6 million or 8% of working-age adults in poverty worked full-time. People working full-time jobs who are in poverty have low-paying jobs and a family size that puts them and their spouses and children in poverty. For example, a spouse working a $10.00 an-hour full-time job would earn approximately $20,800 in a typical work year which is below thepoverty thresholdfor a family of four of $26,496. Individuals working part-time or seasonal jobs also often don’t make enough to raise their income above the poverty threshold.

Why Those In Poverty Are Not Working

There are 13.1 million working-age adults in poverty in 2020 that did not work in the year. The chart to the left shows their reason for not working[iii].

School. Students are generally young and just getting started in life. It makes sense they would not have an annual income greater than the poverty threshold and be labeled as being in poverty. However, even though students are often in poverty they are usually on a path to getting a good job which moves them out of poverty.
Retired early. Individuals who retire early (below age 65) and are seeking no new income most likely have past earnings and pensions that are adequate for their lifestyle. Poverty status measures annual income only and does not take into account assets acquired in the past.
Disabled or ill. This is a broad class of individuals who have mental or physical disabilities preventing them from working. This category can include those who are not capable of earning a living by themselves, such as severely handicapped adults. The category also includes individuals that are prevented from working in their trade because of a physical injury. To return to the workforce these individuals require training or education in a different trade.
Home or Family. This is a very broad category of poverty and includes a variety of reasons why the individual is not working. It includes those taking care of a sick parent, those with limited childcare options, and those with addiction, homelessness, or other more extreme challenges. This category of poverty is usually not a problem of job availability but of circ*mstances preventing the individual from working.
Can’t find work. This represents 7% of the poverty population of working-age adults not working and can be attributed to the job market in the location where the individual lives.

Opportunity and Poverty

What do the poor want more welfare or more opportunity? Here is the answer.

Poverty Dynamics

The chart at the left shows the poverty statistic entitled the turnover rate of poverty [iv]. 27.5% of those in poverty in 2013 remained in poverty in 2016; 72.5% escaped poverty over the three-year period. About 26% had income over 200% of the poverty threshold in 2016 [v].Therefore, many in a poverty status achieve upward mobility and join the middle class.

Over one-third of Blacks in poverty in 2013 were in poverty for the entire four-year reporting period from 2013 to 2016.

The chart to the right shows the dynamics of families in poverty for the four-year period from 2013 to 2016 [vi]. 29.1% of all married-couple families in poverty in 2013 remained in poverty in 2016; the others escaped poverty by 2016. About a third of all single-mother families remained in poverty over the four-year period and about two-thirds of these families escaped poverty in 2016.

Only 2% of the population is in poverty with three attributes

“Young people can virtually assure that they and their families will avoid poverty if they follow three elementary rules for success – complete at least a high school education, work full time, and wait until age 21 and get married before having a baby. Based on an analysis of Census data, people who followed all three of these rules had only a 2 percent chance of being in poverty and a 72 percent chance of joining the middle class (defined as above $55,000 in 2010.” More.

Ron Haskinsof the Brookings Institution,testifying before Congress on June 5, 2012

[i]U.S. Census Bureau. Poverty in the United States: 2021; Issued September 2022. Available here.

[ii] ibid. As reported by the Census Bureau “The sum of those with and without a disability does not equal the total [population] because disability status is not defined for individuals in the Armed Forces”. Table A-1.

[iii] Income and Poverty in the United States: 2020. Poverty StatusPOV-24. Reason For Not Working or Reason For Spending Time Out of the Labor Force–Poverty Status of People Who Did Not Work or Who Spent Time Out of the Labor Force.Available here.

[iv] The United States Census Bureau. Dynamics of Economic Well-Being: Poverty 2013-2016. August 2021. Table 2. Available here.

[v]ibid. Calculated for Appendix Table 5
.
[vi]ibid. Table 2.

[vii] Unemployment rate: United States Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unemployment Rate, 16 years and over. [Internet] Retrieved September 20, 2021.Available here. Poverty Rate:U.S. Census Bureau. For the poverty rate see U.S. Poverty Statistics Page.

[viii] Data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Civilian Labor Force Paticipation Rate. [Internet]. Retreived January 23, 2023. Availale here.