Monthly Poverty Remains Elevated in February 2022

Monthly poverty remained elevated in February 2022, with a 14.4 percent poverty rate for the total US population. This is a slight decrease from 14.7 percent in January 2022, but a continuation of the spike from the December 2021 monthly poverty rate of 12.5 percent. Overall, 6 million more individuals were in poverty in February relative to December. Child poverty saw a small decline (0.3 percentage points) from 17.0 percent in January to 16.7 percent in February 2022. These levels also represent a continuation of the sharp increase in child poverty from December 2021, when the monthly child poverty rate was 12.1 percent. 

January 2022 marked the first month that the American Rescue Plan’s expanded Child Tax Credit monthly payments expired, and child poverty rates increased sharply in response. Monthly child poverty is 4.6 percentage points (38 percent) higher in February 2022 than December 2021, representing 3.4 million additional children in poverty in February relative to December.

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 US population as a whole, as well as by race/ethnicity and age groups.

Suggested Citation: 

Parolin, Zachary, Sophie Collyer, and Megan A. Curran. 2022. Monthly poverty in 2022 remains elevated in February 2022. Poverty and Social Policy Brief, vol. 6, no. 4. New York: Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University.

Published on March 23, 2022