2020 Poverty Projections

Stimulus checks, enhanced SNAP, and expanded unemployment insurance benefits enacted by the Federal government provided financial assistance to low-income individuals and families impacted by COVID-19 and lessened the rise of the poverty rate. This report includes individual state projected 2020 annual poverty rates with and without COVID-19 pandemic response policies. The report indicates that the policies implemented in the early months of the crisis will keep more than 10 million people out of poverty this year. These are initial projections based on current data, and the official data on poverty rates for 2020 will not be available until September 2021. This information is intended to help policymakers address the continuing hardships that families are facing and to initiate and implement policies that will support families and avoid rising poverty rates.