New census data shows a significant decline in poverty
Today, the US Census Bureau released their annual poverty update. From 2019 to 2020, the national poverty rate, under the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), declined from 11.8% to 9.1%. Child poverty also fell from 12.6% to 9.7%. Historic levels of investment in the safety net not only helped prevent sharp increases in poverty amidst the onset of a national and global economic crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but resulted in an overall decline.
Aside from Social Security, the Census Bureau reports that three key elements of pandemic relief had the largest anti-poverty impact, keeping tens of millions of Americans from poverty last year. Economic Impact Payments (or stimulus checks) kept 11.7 million individuals from poverty, unemployment benefits kept 5.5 million individuals from poverty, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and school lunch (both of which also include expanded benefits available under the Pandemic-EBT program) kept 3.2 million individuals from poverty in 2020 alone. They also reduced hardship, including food insecurity, for millions more.
The crisis continues. Our monthly poverty data page updates poverty rates each month for the U.S. population, by age group, and by race and ethnicity. Our annual poverty forecasts for 2021 and 2022 demonstrate the importance of continued economic relief.
Additional Resources
Read more about the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), including the ways in which it addresses many of the limitations of the official poverty measure to better capture the impact of taxes and transfers and social policy changes over time. See also their SPM improvement for 2021.
Access the Census Bureau’s annual report on income, health insurance, and poverty, using the official poverty measure (OPM), for 2020.
Use our historical SPM data to find SPM poverty rates back to 1967.
Watch our recent discussion of how to understand the annual SPM poverty rates and our real-time poverty and hardship measures in the Coalition on Human Needs webinar: Poverty and Hardship – Then and Now.