U.S. poverty declined overall last year due to pandemic relief, Census says

The number of Americans living in poverty declined overall during the Covid pandemic due to the massive stimulus relief measures Congress enacted at the beginning of the crisis, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

The official poverty rate rose slightly in 2020 to 11.4 percent, up from a record low 10.5 percent in 2019, the U.S. Census reported, but that figure mostly reflects cash payments to Americans. After accounting for all the government aid payments, the Census' supplemental poverty measure showed a decline from 11.8 percent in 2019 to 9.1 percent in 2020.

The...