Nearly 50 percent of New Yorkers experienced poverty between 2015 and 2018
The Robin Hood Foundation, in collaboration with Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy, gathered data from New York City residents from 2015 to 2018 to understand financial hardship over time and develop an accurate measure of poverty in the city. In the annual report for the Poverty Tracker project, Robin Hood found that one in five people in New York City lived below the poverty line, a rate higher than the national average. A single adult with an annual income of less than $17,000 is categorized as living in poverty. However, researchers also found that one in three individuals reported living in “material hardship,” meaning that they were unable to afford basic necessities. The data showed that between 2015 and 2018, nearly half of New Yorkers lived in poverty at some point. Researchers also found a significant racial disparity, with 29 percent of white residents, 59 percent of African Americans, and 68 percent of Latinx residents living in poverty for one of the years.