Poverty in the U.S.: Causes, Consequences, and the Role of Policy

EconoFact Chats

12.4% of Americans lived in poverty in 2022. The 4.6 percentage point increase over 2021 marks the biggest one-year jump in the poverty rate on record. More strikingly, the rate of child poverty more than doubled from 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022. What are the sources of this rise in poverty? What are the human consequences of living poor? And what can be done to reduce poverty? Diane Schanzenbach, among the country's foremost experts on poverty and poverty reduction programs joins EconoFact Chats to address these questions. Diane is the Associate Provost and Senior Advisor to the President for Academic Excellence at the University of Florida. She is currently on leave from her position as Professor in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University.