The U.S. poverty rate fell to 10.2% in 2025, the lowest in the Census Bureau's historical series, while median household income rose to a record high as the number of Americans living below the official poverty line declined for a second straight year.
About 34.5 million people were in poverty last year, down from 35.9 million in 2024, when the poverty rate stood at 10.6%, Census Bureau data showed Tuesday. The 0.5 percentage-point decline brought the official rate to its lowest level since the government's historical poverty series began.
