Poverty Rate Soars In U.S.: See Latest Data For PA

PENNSYLVANIA — New data sheds light on how many people in Pennsylvania are living in poverty, and the nationwide rate sharply increased last year by 4.6 percentage points to 12.4 percent amid high inflation, changing tax policies, and expiring pandemic-era federal aid programs.

The U.S. Census Bureau released new numbers this week, using both the official poverty measure and the better-regarded supplemental poverty measure.

While the official poverty measure of 11.5 percent in 2022 was statistically no different from 2021, the government said the supplemental measure shot up to 12.4 percent. It was the first increase in the supplemental number since 2010, the Census Bureau said. And among children, this number more than doubled.

The supplemental measure is widely considered a better metric because it compares people’s spending on food, clothing, shelter, utilities, phone and internet with that of a median household.

The Census Bureau included three-year averages for each state for the supplemental metric. Here’s what it found from 2020-22 in Pennsylvania.

Poverty Rates In Pennsylvania, 2020-22

Official Poverty Measure

• People living in poverty: 1.36 million
• Percent: 10.8 percent

Supplemental Poverty Measure

• People living in poverty: 978,000
• Percent: 7.7 percent

Overall, about 37.9 million Americans were living in poverty last year. The child supplemental poverty measure (SPM) more than doubled, from 5.2 percent in 2021 to 12.4 percent in 2022.

Nationally, the number of people under the SPM was lower, at around 32.2 million people, or 9.8 percent of the population. The rate was much higher in some places — 14.8 percent in Washington, D.C., for example.

Other highlights from the report:

• While 92.1 percent of the U.S. population had health insurance in 2022, an estimated 25.9 million people did not. That’s down from 27.2 million people who didn’t have health insurance of any kind in 2021.
• Real household income fell by 2.3 percent, from $76,330 in 2021 to $74,580 in 2022. During the same period, inflation rose 7.8 percent — the largest annual increase in the cost-of-living adjustment since 1981.
• Real median earnings of workers, both full- and part-time, decreased 2.2 percent between 2021 and 2022, while the median earnings of those who worked full-time, year-round decreased 1.3 percent.
• The number of full-time, year-round workers increased by 3.4 percent, compared to a 1.7 percent increase in the number of total workers. The data shows a continuing shift from part-time or part-year work to year-round, full-time employment, the government said.

The findings come from three Census Bureau reports: Income in the United States: 2022, Poverty in the United States: 2022, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2022. All three reports are based primarily on government data from the Census Bureau's monthly population surveys and Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

People under age 65 experienced a 1.4 percent decline in median household income, while those over 65 saw little change.

The Gini index, which measures income inequality, decreased by 1.2 percent from 2021 to 2022. It was the first downward movement in the index since 2007, but was still 0.488 on a scale in which 0.0 indicates perfect equality and 1.0 indicates total inequality.

Patch’s national desk contributed to this report.

Related articles:

• PA Median Income Falls With 16 Other States: New Census Data
• See The PA Counties With Highest Household Income