Trump hails record-low poverty as Census data show 10.2% rate

President Donald Trump said the United States has the best poverty numbers in its history; Census Bureau data released this month show the official poverty rate fell to 10.2% in 2025, the lowest on record, though experts caution the figures predate this year’s policy changes.

US President Donald Trump said the country has reached its lowest poverty level ever. “We have the best poverty numbers in the history of the United States. Poverty has never been this low at any time in our country’s history,” he said.

The claim draws on the Census Bureau’s annual report released on September 15, which found that the official poverty rate fell by about half a percentage point to 10.2% in 2025, the lowest since the government began tracking the measure in 1959 and the second consecutive annual decline. The child poverty rate also dropped to a record low of 13.4%.

The same report showed real median household income rising 2.6% to $87,460, the highest on record. However, the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which accounts for government benefits and expenses such as taxes and medical costs, was essentially unchanged at 13.1%.

Some experts cautioned that the 2025 data do not yet reflect federal policy changes taking effect this year and warned that next year’s report could show a less favorable picture.