One in four New Yorkers is living in poverty, according to the seventh annual State of Poverty and Disadvantage in New York City report. The analysis of data from 2023 (the most recent year available) published by Columbia University and Robin Hood, an anti-poverty advocacy group, finds that roughly 1.6 million adults (24%) and 420,000 children (26%) are living in poverty, bringing the total to 2.02 million across the board, or 25% of New Yorkers overall. These figures all mark increases from the findings in last year’s report, with adult and childhood one percent higher than 2022 figures, and the overall rate ticking up two points, from 23% to 25%, or about 100,000 people. This puts the Big Apple’s poverty rate at nearly double the national average of 13%.
The rising rates stand in apparent contradiction of other economic indicators usually associated with poverty reduction. In a press conference on February 5th, Mayor Eric Adams highlighted that his administration had “broken the record for total jobs in New York City,” eight times since he took office. Despite the outwardly positive development, which Robin Hood does not dispute, other factors persist that are apparently overtaking his administration’s efforts. “While continued economic growth and declining unemployment typically reduce poverty levels,” Robin Hood states on their report’s webpage, “increased cost of living plunged an additional 100,000 New Yorkers into poverty.”
The report’s authors estimate that the poverty threshold for a renting family of four stood at $47,190 in 2023, a 7.5% increase over the $43,890 estimated from 2022 data. The calculation is made based on the cost of basic necessities, defined in the report as “food, shelter, utilities, clothing, and telephone/internet,” plus miscellaneous “other” needs. The increase in the cost of shelter in particular saw a spike between 2022 and 2023, rising over 7% nationally, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while a typical basket of goods rose by a less substantial 4%. The widening gap between wages and the cost of housing has also been observed in other analyses. According to a report from the real estate side StreetEasy published last year, rent prices grew eight times faster than wages in New York City between 2022 and 2023, the largest gap among the fifty cities analyzed.
As the Empire City creeps towards Dickensian levels of poverty (Victorian London’s poverty rate is estimated to have been 30%-35%), Robin Hood and Columbia’s seventh annual report also notes how much more dire the situation would be without government programs. While the overall poverty rate still grew, the report estimates that government transfers and tax credits have kept 500,000 adults and 300,000 children above the poverty line. The current political environment bodes poorly for the future such programs, as the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress seek broad cuts to poverty relief programs like Medicaid, while also seeking $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy.
