Poverty Nationwide and In Your Neighborhood
In 2024, 35.9 million people in the US lived in poverty, lacking enough income to cover basic needs like food, housing, and healthcare. That’s equal to 10.6% of the nation’s population. But the national percentage is just the starting point. We’ve just added poverty data for every state and over 3,000 counties.
Dive into the numbers.
CT: 2019-2023
9.2% Poverty Rate in Northwest Hills Planning Region
6.9% to 13.2% Range of Poverty Rates in Connecticut Counties
10.2% Overall Poverty Rate in Connecticut
PROGRESS: The rate has generally trended downward since its first official measurement in 1959. The most recent data shows the number of people in poverty fell 4.2% from the 2014 peak of 46.7 million.
STATE OF THE CONSTITUTION STATE: State-level poverty rates ranged from 18.7% in Louisiana to 7.2% in New Hampshire. Other high rates were in Mississippi (17.8%), Washington, DC (17.3%), West Virginia (16.7%), and New Mexico (16.4%). Connecticut came in just below the national rate at 10.2%.
PROGRAMS USE NUMBERS: While the poverty rate shows the overall trend, the total number matters because many aid programs and funding decisions are based on how many people are in poverty, not just the percentage. In 2024, 364,217 people living in Connecticut were in poverty — down 3.6% from the 2011 peak of 377,856.
YOUTH AT RISK: The child poverty rate fell faster than older groups, but children still have a higher poverty rate than the adults measured. The rate for people younger than 18 fell from 15.3% to 14.3% between 2023 and 2024, while the rate for adults under 65 dropped from 10% to 9.6%. The rate for adults over 65 rose slightly from 9.7% to 9.9%.
MOMS ALONE: Single-parent families, married couples, and people living alone all have varying economic circumstances. In 2024, 21.8% of families led by a female householder with no spouse present lived in poverty, compared to 4.6% of married-couple families.
The Department of Health and Human Services uses Census Bureau data to calculate and issue annual federal poverty levels. These set the income limits used to determine eligibility for programs such as Medicaid and CHIP.
Sources: US Census Bureau and USA Facts
