Census data shows US poverty rate drops to lowest on record, but experts are cautious

Filed 1h ago · Via Stateline · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: The White House · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

The Census Bureau reported the official U.S. poverty rate fell to 10.2% in 2025, a historic low, while the more comprehensive supplemental poverty rate barely moved at 13.1%. Median household income rose 2.6% to a record $87,460, and the insured rate ticked up slightly to 92.1%.

Economists quoted in the report caution the numbers predate major cuts to Medicaid and food stamps passed in last year's tax and spending bill, meaning next year's report is expected to look considerably worse. SNAP enrollment among children already fell by 1.2 million between July 2025 and July 2026, and the Congressional Budget Office projects roughly 15 million more people uninsured by 2034.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A record low poverty number sounds like good news until you notice it is measuring last year, right before the cuts to Medicaid and food stamps actually start biting into people's grocery bills. It is a bit like bragging about how dry the basement was the week before the pipe burst. The real report card comes next September, and everybody quoted here already knows it.

Source: Read the original at Stateline → Scored: Blue Feather · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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