--- description: The percentage of Americans living in poverty declined year-over-year for the first time since 2006, according to a new report released by the United States Census Bureau on Tuesday. title: U.S. Poverty Rate Declines for the First Time Since 2006 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b276ca3aa8f39d6/6986a37dcd804dfb24cccc54/homeless-2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Economy](/tag/economy/) ## Economy Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The Poverty Rate Just Declined for the First Time Since 2006  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 16, 2014 2:59 PM CUT  A homeless man sleeps on a Manhattan street on Aug. 22, 2014 in New York City. A homeless man sleeps on a Manhattan street on Aug. 22, 2014 in New York City.Spencer Platt—Getty Images  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 16, 2014 2:59 PM CUT The percentage of Americans living in poverty declined year-over-year for the first time since 2006 last year, according to a [report](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/p60-249.pdf "undefined") released Tuesday by the United States Census Bureau. 45.3 million Americans, or 14.5% of the population, lived below the poverty line in 2013, down from 15% in 2012\. The percentage of children under the age of 18 living in poverty declined to 19.9% in 2013, down from 21.8% the preceding year. It was the first recorded drop in childhood poverty since 2000. The officially defined poverty threshold for a family of four in 2013 was $23,834. Nonetheless, the report emphasized that the long-awaited declines in poverty were not quite large enough to be considered statistically significant improvements (i.e. definitively greater than a measurement error). The general findings of the report, entitled [Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013](http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2014/cb14-169.html "undefined"), was that the measures of poverty had plateaued, with household income registering a statistically insignificant uptick to $51,939, an improvement of $180 over the previous year. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3386799/poverty-rate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3386799/poverty-rate/"},"headline":"The Poverty Rate Just Declined for the First Time Since 2006","datePublished":"2014-09-16T14:59:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:12:32.901Z","description":"45.3 million Americans, or 14.5% of the population, lived below the poverty line in 2013","url":"https://time.com/3386799/poverty-rate/","keywords":["Economy","poverty"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b276ca3aa8f39d6/6986a37dcd804dfb24cccc54/homeless-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b276ca3aa8f39d6/6986a37dcd804dfb24cccc54/homeless-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"New York City's Homeless Population Shows Sharp Rise In Last Five Years","caption":"New York City's Homeless Population Shows Sharp Rise In Last Five Years","creditText":"Spencer Platt—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/economy/","name":"Economy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3386799/poverty-rate/","name":"The Poverty Rate Just Declined for the First Time Since 2006"}}]}] ```