The poverty rate in the United States fell last year, even amid impact of the global pandemic, due to government aid, including stimulus payments and unemployment insurance. That's according to the Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure, released today.
The Supplemental Poverty Measure rate in 2020 was 9.1%, 2.6 percentage points lower than the SPM rate in 2019.
Stimulus payments moved 11.7 million people from poverty, according to the Census data, and unemployment insurance benefits kept 5.5 million people from falling into poverty.
The official poverty rate was 11.4%, up 1.0 percentage point from 2019. But that official rate does not include many types of government aid, including stimulus checks, though it does include unemployment insurance.
The Supplemental Poverty Measure, or SPM, also incorporatesregional differences in housing, food, and utility costs. It reflects post-tax income and serves as an alternative measure of poverty and economic well-being.
"I think this really shows the importance of the social safety net," said Liana Fox, chief of the Poverty Statistics Branch, in the Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division at the Census. "When we see differences in trends with the official poverty rate and the SPM ... that's really the impact of our tax system, that's the impact of our non-cash benefits."
Median household income dropped by 2.9% last year, from $69,560 in 2019 to $67,521 in 2020. Incomes in the Midwest, South and West were most affected.
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