Census Data Show Historic Investments in Social Safety Net Alleviated Poverty in 2020 (Areeba Haider, Jocelyn Frye, Rose Khattar, Juli Adhikari, Nicole Rapfogel, and Emily Gee, CAP)

Newly released data on income, poverty, and health insurance coverage from the U.S. Census Bureau provide insights on the economic well-being of individuals and families in 2020. Today’s new data are limited; they don’t reflect the totality of economic hardship experienced across the country in 2020 or the current political and economic reality. They do, however, give clear evidence that the historic federal aid provided last year—including expanded unemployment insurance, nutrition support, and direct cash assistance through economic impact payments—worked to reduce poverty, lifting millions of people above the poverty line in a year of significant economic insecurity.

Census Data Show Historic Investments in Social Safety Net Alleviated Poverty in 2020 – Center for American Progress