The most recent U.S. Census Bureau report on poverty in the United States presented estimates using two measures, the official poverty measure, or OPM, and the supplemental poverty measure, or SPM. The OPM is the main measure used by the federal government to track poverty and it is also used as the basis for determining eligibility for many anti-poverty programs. It is based on a formula for measuring poverty developed in the 1960s that has been updated for inflation since that time. The SPM is a more up-to-date measure that provides more information on the needs and expenses of households today. Unlike the OPM, the SPM accounts for geographic differences in the cost of living, measures the impact of many major anti-poverty programs, and has a broader definition of household membership that better reflects today’s families. For more, see our FAQ: How Poverty is Measured?
Under the official poverty measure, the poverty rate in 2021 was 11.6% and 7.8% under the supplemental poverty measure.
The graph below shows the U.S. poverty rate for the Official Poverty Measure (1959 to 2021) and the Supplemental Poverty Measure (1967 to 2021). The Census Bureau introduced the SPM in 2010, so rates shown from 1967 to 2010 are historical SPM estimates developed by researchers at Columbia University.
Other Poverty FAQs
Sources: US Census Bureau Historical Poverty Tables: People and Families, 1959–2021. Table 2. Chris Wimer, Liana Fox, Irwin Garfinkel, Neeraj Kaushal, Jennifer Laird, Jaehyun Nam, Laura Nolan, Jessica Pac, and Jane Waldfogel. 2022. Historical Supplemental Poverty Measure Data 1967-2020. Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University.
The official U.S. poverty rate when it was first measured in 1959 was 22.4%; then, after a major decline over the 1960s, poverty has hovered between about 10% and 15%. Over that period, the SPM or historical SPM has generally been a few points higher than the OPM (because the SPM has higher and more accurate poverty thresholds). This pattern was reversed in 2020, and now 2021, because the SPM rate reflected the poverty-reducing effect of public benefits offered in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Poverty Rates by Demographic Subgroups
The U.S. Census Bureau releases annual estimates of poverty by various subgroups in the United States. Below, this section describes each of these groups for the year 2021:
SPM: Public policies were particularly beneficial to households with children in 2021, bringing the child poverty rate down to 5.2%. Adults aged 18-64 were at 7.9% and those 65 years and older were at 10.7%.
OPM: Under the OPM, child poverty in 2021 was at 15.3%, for those aged 18-64 10.5%, and for seniors 10.3%.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2021. Figure 6, p. 10.
SPM: American Indian and Alaska Natives had the highest poverty rate under the SPM in 2021 at 12.4%, followed by African Americans (11.3%), Hispanics (11.2%), Asians (9.3%), those of two or more races (7.3%), and Whites (6.9%).
OPM: American Indian and Alaska Natives had the highest poverty rate under the OPM in 2021 at 24.2%, followed by African Americans (19.5%), Hispanics (17.1%), those with two or more races (14.1%), Whites (10.0%), and Asians (9.5%).
There were large differences between the SPM and OPM rates by household unit for 2021. The OPM only counts people related by birth, marriage, or adoption as being part of the same resource-sharing unit. The SPM takes a more expansive approach and includes families, unmarried cohabiting partners and relatives, foster children under the age of 22, and unrelated children under 15.
SPM: Married couple and cohabiting partner households had the lowest poverty rates in 2021 at 4.4% and 6.5%, respectively. Female reference person or head of household poverty was at 11.7%, male reference person poverty at 10.6%, and unrelated individual poverty 18.1%.
OPM: Married couple poverty was lowest among household unit types under the OPM at 5.2%. Because the OPM does not count cohabiting partners as part of the same resource sharing unit, their poverty rate under the OPM was much higher, at 24.1%, versus 6.5% under the SPM. Male reference person poverty was at 11.2%, female reference person poverty at 23.4%, and unrelated individuals poverty at 19.4%.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2021. Figure 6, p. 10.
The national SPM was lower than the OPM rate in 2021, but there were some exceptions to this based on geographic area. The Census Bureau figure shown below shows states that had an SPM rate was higher than the OPM rate (green), states where the SPM and OPM rates were not statistically different (light gray), and those in which the SPM rate lower than the OPM rate (dark gray).
Source:U.S. Census Bureau, Income and Poverty in the United States: 2021. Figure 9, p. 13.
Poverty rates by work experience followed similar patterns under the SPM and OPM in 2021. Those who did not work at least one week had the highest rates of poverty at 21.5% (SPM) and 30.0% (OPM). Workers who were less than full-time, year-round were at 8.7% (SPM) and 12.2% (OPM). Those who worked full-time, year-round had the lowest poverty at 1.8% (SPM) and 2.0% (OPM), while poverty for all workers was 3.8% under the SPM and 4.7% under the OPM.
People living with a disability had a poverty rate of 15.2% (SPM) and 24.9% (OPM); 7.2% (SPM) and 9.3% (OPM) of those without a disability were in poverty.
Among adults aged 25 years and older, those without a high school diploma had the highest poverty rate of 19.7% (SPM) and 24.9% (OPM). Those with a high school diploma were at about half those rates, at 10.3% and 13.2%, respectively. Those with a bachelor’s degree or higher had the lowest rates at 4.3%. (SPM) and 4.1% (OPM).
