Poverty

  • Official Poverty Measure
    In 2024, the official poverty rate declined by 0.4 percentage points, reaching 10.6 percent, representing 35.9 million individuals living in poverty. From 2023 to 2024, poverty rates fell among White, Asian, and Hispanic populations, while the rates for other racial groups covered in the report showed no statistically significant change.

  • Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM)
    The Supplemental Poverty Measure was 12.9 percent in 2024, essentially unchanged from the 2023 estimate. Between 2023 and 2024, SPM poverty increased among adults aged 65 and older and Black individuals, but remained relatively stable for the other population groups examined. Social Security remained the country’s most impactful antipoverty program, lifting 28.7 million people out of SPM poverty in 2024.

  • Differences Between Poverty Measures
    In 2024, almost every demographic group highlighted in the report experienced higher poverty rates under the SPM than under the official poverty measure when both were calculated using the same population universe. The exceptions were children under age 18 and individuals living in cohabiting partner households, for whom poverty rates were higher under the official measure. Additionally, the proportion of individuals with resources below 50 percent of their poverty threshold—a marker of deep poverty—was 5.0 percent under the official measure but 4.2 percent under the SPM

Source: U.S. Census Bureau: https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2025/demo/p60-287.html