2023 Poverty Rates in Historical Perspective

Policy Brief
Written By Sonia Huq

The new 2023 poverty numbers released by the US Census Bureau in September 2024 are important on their own, but they are even more important relative to historical trends. And understanding historical trends in poverty means reckoning with decisions about how to best measure poverty over time. This research brief considers the 2023 poverty numbers from a long-term historical perspective. It also describes how the interpretation of long-term trends depends on the underlying measure being used. The brief compares trends in poverty over the last nearly sixty years across four alternative poverty measures: (1) the historical Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), (2) the anchored 2012 SPM, (3) a new anchored 2022 SPM, and (4) a fully-relative poverty measure. Together, these measures provide a more comprehensive understanding of longer-term trends in poverty rates and reductions in the poverty rate attributable to resources from government policies and programs over time.

Suggested Citation

Wimer, Christopher, Ryan Vinh, Jiwan Lee, and Sophie Collyer. 2024. 2023 Poverty Rates in Historical Perspective. Poverty and Social Policy Brief, vol. 8, no. 4. New York: Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University.

Sonia Huq
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