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U.S. Child Poverty Rate Hit Record Low After Pandemic-Era Policies: Report

Taking government aid into account, census data found that millions fewer children are growing up in poverty today than they were in 1993.

A newly published report found the child poverty rate in America has radically dropped over the past quarter-century, with expanded pandemic-era government benefits among the strongest contributing factors. While the rate was reflected as hovering around 9.7 percent in 2020, the Census Bureau found that it was 5.2 percent in 2021. The agency’s analysis on income, poverty, and health insurance coverage, released Tuesday, takes into account the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which since 2009 has taken into account expenses and aid. Poverty experts attributed the 2021 plummet largely to the government’s one-year enhancement of the enhanced child tax credit, which pulled more than 5 million people out of poverty. The credit was only in effect for 2021, according to CNN. “We know how to fight poverty, and it’s not super complicated,” an official at the Center for Law and Social Policy told the outlet. “It’s about giving people the resources that they need to meet their and their families’ needs.”