Official poverty rate declines slightly in 2023

By Mark Robert Rank, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis People in West Virginia look through donated clothes. Spencer Platt/Getty Images The number of Americans living in poverty, according to the nation’s official definition, fell slightly to about 36.8 million in 2023, the Census Bureau announced on Sept. 10, 2024. The data released also indicated that the poverty rate declined a little. However, an alternative way to measure poverty ticked up, as more people in the U.S. faced economic hardship. The Conversation U.S. asked Mark Rank, a sociologist who researches poverty and economic inequality, to explain the latest numbers and to share some of his insights about poverty in America. What’s the most significant news? I think the most interesting aspect of this report is the different directions the two measures of poverty went in 2023. On one hand, the official poverty measure declined to 11.1% in 2023 from 11.5% in 2022. At the same time, the supplemental poverty measure, an alternative way to measure poverty introduced in 2011, increased to 12.9% in 2023 from 12.4% a year earlier. The official poverty rate fell because overall household income rose modestly in 2023 – even after taking inflation...