​January 01, 2026
UC Davis Letters & Science Magazine
Alex Russell

The U.S. is the world’s wealthiest nation and yet, year after year, a significant share of the population lives in poverty. The experience of poverty touches every part of a person’s life.

“Poverty is correlated with nutrition, sleep, and your sense of security and comfort in your own skin,” said Marianne Page, a professor of economics and co-director of the UC Davis Center for Poverty and Inequality Research. 

The U.S. poverty rate puts a number on the share of households who experience the struggle to make ends meet. The way we measure poverty, which dates back to the 1960s, determines who qualifies for safety net programs that seek to provide a basic standard of living for every American. These measures are also a starting point for building an effective safety net that lifts people out of poverty. 

What is the U.S. poverty rate?

The national poverty rate in the U.S. was 10.6% in 2024, but the official poverty measure is only a snapshot of Americans who struggle financially. Since the national poverty rate was first measured in 1959, it has fluctuated from a high of 22.4% and last year’s low, typically bouncing up and down around 12%. Poverty is measured each year by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The official poverty measure counts how many Americans live in households below certain income thresholds. That threshold changes depending on the number of people who live in the household and their ages. For example, the 2024 poverty threshold for a single adult under age 65 living alone was $16,320 in annual income. For a household of four with two children, the annual income threshold was $31,812.

The official poverty measure, developed in the 1960s, is based on a level of income that is triple the cost of food for a minimum diet. Tripling this cost was meant to account for household expenses other than food. The cost of this minimum food diet is updated annually by the USDA.

There are real limitations to how well the official poverty measure describes a family’s actual experience. One limitation is that it does not account for where families live. A family with an income threshold at the poverty line will have a very different experience if they live in California, the state with the nation’s highest cost of living, and Arkansas, which has the lowest.

Research by economist and Center for Poverty and Inequality Research co-founder Ann Huff Stevens charted the dynamics of how people move in and out of poverty. The more time spent in poverty, the lower the chances of leaving poverty, ranging from 56% after one year to only 13% after 7 or more years. 

The supplemental poverty measure

The supplemental poverty measure provides a more detailed estimate of poverty in the U.S. by including non-cash income, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Earned Income Tax Credit, as well as costs for housing and medical care. The Census Bureau has published this measure since 2011.

Poverty rates according to the supplemental poverty measure split sharply from the official poverty measure rates from 2019 to 2021. According to a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2023 report, the difference was driven by the supplemental measure including COVID-19 stimulus payments. 

Mariane Bitler, professor and chair of economics at UC Davis, was a technical reviewer for this 2023 report that offered guidance for improving the supplemental poverty measure. The panel evaluating the measure particularly focused on suggestions to improve measurement categories such as medical care, childcare and housing, however some suggestions might be challenging to incorporate into a single national measure.

“A suggestion that would also be useful is to include childcare expenses as a basic need,” said Bitler, a faculty affiliate of the Center for Poverty and Inequality Research. “This is much more complicated than including the need for and resources provided by employers or the government for health insurance, as a large share of childcare is provided in-kind by relatives and friends of the parents of the child, and thus is hard to value.”

Safety net programs that reduce poverty

Safety net programs in the U.S. are designed to provide every American a basic livelihood. These programs range from in-kind transfers to buy food, assistance with medical costs, tax credits and even direct cash payments. 

Safety net programs also have the potential to lift families out of poverty. This is particularly true for programs that support children. Experts in the UC Davis Center for Poverty and Inequality Research study these programs and other factors that move individuals and families out of poverty. 

Research shows that safety net programs, including the Earned Income Tax Credit, SNAP and Medicaid, drive a number of positive outcomes for children, such as improved diets and food security, stronger brain development and even better health as adults. Safety net programs also help people get out of poverty faster.

At the same time, households may face barriers to accessing these programs. One of these barriers is what’s called “administrative burden,” which is the paperwork and other requirements that make it more work to receive benefits even for people who will qualify. Paperwork can be complicated, overwhelming and time consuming, sometimes requiring beneficiaries to re-certify their status multiple times each year. Work requirements can be a barrier for people who otherwise qualify to receive benefits. 

“The benefits of these programs for children spill over until later generations,” said Page. “We really need to think long-term about programs to reduce poverty. We need to think not just about how these programs affect outcomes for the current generation but about investing in the next generation.”