US poverty rate falls to 10% as median income hits $87,460

The US poverty rate has reportedly dropped to 10.2% while median household income climbed to a record $87,460, according to preliminary 2025 figures circulating online. If accurate, those numbers would represent a meaningful step forward from the most recent confirmed data. What the Census Bureau has actually confirmed The most recent verified data comes from the US Census Bureau, which published its annual income and poverty reports on September 9, 2025. Those reports cover the 2024 calendar year, not 2025. For 2024, the official poverty rate came in at 10.6%, a decline of 0.4 percentage points from the 11.1% recorded in 2023. That translates to roughly 35.9 million Americans living below the poverty line. Real median household income for 2024 landed at $83,730. That figure was statistically unchanged from the $82,690 reported the prior year. The Supplemental Poverty Measure, which accounts for government benefits and regional cost-of-living differences, held flat at 12.9% for 2024. The jump to 2025 numbers Census Bureau data for calendar year 2025 has not yet been officially released. The bureau typically publishes its annual income and poverty reports in September of the followi...