New Series on Historical Poverty

June 24, 2025

Understanding current poverty rates in historical context is crucial for understanding how populations are faring over time and how policy decisions have impacted economic wellbeing. This series of briefs on long-term trends by population builds on our prior work examining historical poverty trends from 1967 to 2023 across historical, anchored, and relative measures.

2023 Child poverty rates in historical perspective

This policy brief examines poverty trends among children from 1967 to 2023 across historical, anchored, and relative measures, finding that children are better off today under historical and anchored measures, but worse off under the relative poverty measure.

Read Policy Brief

2023 Young adult poverty rates in historical perspective

This policy brief examines poverty trends among young adults (18–34 yrs) from 1967 to 2023—using historical, anchored, and relative measures—and shows that government policies play an increasing role in reducing poverty, though trends vary by measure.

Read Policy Brief

2023 Working age adults’ poverty rates in historical perspective

This policy brief examines poverty trends among working age adults (ages 18 to 64) from 1967 to 2023 across historical, anchored, and relative measures, finding that working age adults are substantially better off today under anchored measures, slightly better off under the historical measure, and worse off under the relative poverty measure in 2023 compared to the 1960s.

Read Policy Brief

2023 Older adults’ poverty rates in historical perspective

This policy brief examines poverty trends among older adults (aged 65 and older) from 1967 to 2023 across historical, anchored, and relative measures, finding that older adults are significantly better off today than in the 1960s across all measures due, in large part, to the important role of government policies in reducing poverty.

Read Policy Brief

2023 Poverty rates in historical perspective

This brief situates the 2023 poverty numbers in a long-term historical perspective using four alternative poverty measures to identify trends and the impact of government policies and programs over time.

Read Policy Brief