After cresting at 17.7 percent during the slow recovery from the Great Recession, the rural poverty rate is back at pre-recession levels, said the Census Bureau on Tuesday. But the growth in household income that accompanied four years of declines in the poverty rate nationwide has slowed, and anti-hunger groups warned that poverty was sure to increase if Trump administration policies are adopted.
“In 2018, for the first time in 11 years, the official poverty rate was significantly lower than 2007, the year before the most recent recession began,” said the Census Bureau. The U.S. poverty rate was 11.8 percent, down by 0.5 points from the preceding year and the fourth decline in four years. One out of seven Americans lives outside of metropolitan areas.
The rural poverty rate was 14.7 percent, roughly the same as in 2017. The rural rate perennially is higher than the national rate. Rural Americans tend to be older, have less formal education, and earn less than urban residents. The 2018 rate was not statistically different than when the recession started; 15.4 percent in 2007 and 15.1 percent in 2008, said the Census Bureau.
“While you could say (rural) poverty rates have ‘returned’ to pre-recession levels, it would not be considered lower than 2007,” replied Census when asked if the rural rate, like the national rate, was below pre-recession levels. By contrast, the national poverty rate of 11.8 percent was well below the 2007 rate of 12.5 percent. The peak poverty rate for rural areas during recovery from the 2008-09 recession was 17.7 percent in 2012. The rate has hovered around 15 percent for the past three years.
In an annual report, the Census Bureau said median household income was $63,179, little changed from 2017, following three straight years of annual increases. For rural areas, median household income was $49,867.
“The decline in the official poverty rate reflects the continued economic growth of recent years,” said Rob Greenstein, head of the think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. However, growth in median household income has “decelerated” to $553 in 2018 from a powerful 5.1 percent in 2015. President Trump proposed cuts earlier this year in programs, such as SNAP, rental assistance and welfare, that help reduce poverty, said Greenstein. “The administration itself says” that two proposals for tougher SNAP rules “would take food assistance from nearly 4 million people.”
A supplemental measurement used by the Census Bureau said Social Security was the most important antipoverty program, moving 27.3 million people out of poverty. SNAP was credited with lifting 3.1 million people from poverty and SSI aided 2.9 million.
“Federal and state governments need to be doing more to reduce poverty and hunger, not taking steps to erode effective programs,” said the anti-hunger Food Research and Action Center. The child poverty rate of 16.2 percent “underscores the failure of the nations to reduce unnecessary suffering and invest in its human capital and its future.”
Bread for the World, an antipoverty group, credited the lower poverty rate to low unemployment and “the fact that Congress has repeatedly backed away from cutting safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP.”