Monthly poverty rate declines to 13.2% in the United States in January 2021
The monthly SPM poverty rate declined from 16.1 percent in December 2020 to 13.2 percent in January 2021, according to our latest projections. The decline is driven almost exclusively by the temporary income supports the U.S. Congress passed in late December 2020. These income supports include the payment of one-time $600 per person stimulus checks, a $300 per week federal supplement to unemployment benefits for 11 weeks, and a 15 percent increase in the maximum value of SNAP benefits for 6 months.
Absent this recent round of COVID-19 economic relief, which also includes a continuation of unemployment benefits paid out through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Unemployment Emergency Compensation (PEUC) programs, the monthly poverty rate in January 2021 would have been 17.4 percent, comparable to its rate (17.2 percent) in December 2020. Thus, the December 2020 COVID-19 economic relief package contributed to a 4.2 percentage point reduction in monthly poverty (13 million individuals) in January 2021.
Measuring Monthly Poverty
In 2020, we established a novel method to estimate monthly Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) poverty rates. Using a monthly framework, we are able to track poverty amidst changing economic circumstances, for example as the COVID-19 pandemic and federal policy responses to it evolved. Visit our data page to see monthly poverty information for the U.S. population as a whole, as well as by race/ethnicity and age groups.
Suggested Citation:
Parolin, Zachary and Megan A. Curran. 2021. Monthly poverty rate declines to 13.2% in the United States in January 2021. Poverty and Social Policy Fact Sheet. New York: Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University.
Published on March 04, 2021