Pandemic Relief Programs Reduced Poverty, Census Finds

According to the Census Bureau, last year’s pandemic assistance programs helped millions of Americans climb out of poverty, report Ben Casselman and Jeanna Smialek. "In the latest and most conclusive evidence that poverty fell because of the aid, the Census Bureau reported on Tuesday that 9.1 percent of Americans were living below the poverty line last year, down from 11.8 percent in 2019."

This is the lowest figure since recordkeeping began in 1967, signaling the importance of government assistance in a year when millions lost jobs to the pandemic. "The decline in poverty last year was broad-based. It fell among all racial and ethnic groups, among all family types, and among Americans at every age and education level."

Rather than the federal government’s official poverty measure, these numbers reflect an alternative poverty rate, known as the Supplemental Poverty Measure, created by the Census Bureau. Unlike the official measure, this rate takes into account government assistance programs as well as regional differences in housing costs, medical expenses and other expenses.

"A White House economist, Jared Bernstein, said on Tuesday that the new poverty data should encourage lawmakers to enact the $3.5 trillion Democratic measure that includes much of Mr. Biden’s economic agenda, which the administration argues will create more and better-paying jobs."