- There is an increase of 1.0 percent in the official poverty rate of the United States for 2020 as compared to 2019. There were 37.2 million individuals living in poverty which is an addition of around 3.3 million from the collected data for 2019. According to the Census Bureau, “this is the first increase in poverty after five consecutive annual declines.”
- Based on race, the non-Hispanic Whites and Hispanics had the most statistically significant change in poverty rate from 2019-2020 where the former had 8.2 percent of their population as considered within poverty while the latter had a poverty rate of 17.0 percent.
- Based on age, the notable age ranges are those below 18 years of age and 18 to 64 years old where the poverty rate of the former had an 11.8 percentage difference from 2019 to 2020 and the latter had a 10.6 percentage difference.
- Married-couple families and families with a female householder also experienced increase in poverty rates in 2020. The poverty rate for married-couple families had a 17.5 percentage difference from 2019 to 2020 while for families with a female householder, the percentage difference was 5.40 percent.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau: https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html