What Happened To Poverty in America in 2021
“Pandemic-era benefits may have helped drive poverty in 2021 lower than in 2020, according to researchers at Columbia University’s Center on Poverty & Social Policy and at the nonprofit Urban Institute. By one measure, last year was already a notable low, with the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 supplemental poverty rate — which factors in families’ expenses, as well as government assistance like stimulus checks — falling to its lowest since the estimate was first published, in 2009.
FRONTLINE has been documenting how poverty impacts families — and especially children — for several years, including in the documentaries Poor Kids (2017) and Growing Up Poor in America (2020).
The Census Bureau’s annual poverty figures for 2021 won’t be available until well into next year. While researchers estimated that poverty declined in 2021, they cautioned that the trend could be temporary, with many pandemic-era benefits ending. So where does that leave American families now?”