How does gender relate to poverty status? Official data breakdown
In 2024, the overall poverty rate in the United States was
10.6%. Poverty rates by gender ranged from 9.6% to 11.6%.
Poverty rates by gender were:
9.6% male
11.6% female
Another way to think about the relationship between poverty
and gender is to look at how the gender distribution of
people in poverty compares to that of the population as a whole.
By that measure, in 2024 females comprise a greater share of the
population in poverty than their share of the general population;
while males are underrepresented.
The official poverty statistics, which have been in use since the
1960s, calculate poverty status by comparing a family’s or
an individual’s cash income to their poverty threshold.
