CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/Getty Images
- Poverty in New York City surged by half a million between 2021 and 2022, totalling 2 million people.
- Over half of NYC residents are living in poverty or with low income, including 25% of kids.
- The surge contrasts with NYC's status as the city with most millionaires globally.
In the city so nice they named it twice, more than half of the population is living in poverty or close to it — including 25% of kids.
A new report from Robin Hood, an anti-poverty philanthropy, and Columbia University's Center on Poverty and Social Policy found that poverty in New York City surged by half a million between 2021 and 2022, bringing the total number of New Yorkers living in poverty to 2 million.
Some 56% of the city's total population, which surpasses 8 million, is living in poverty or with low incomes. The Supplemental Poverty Measure (which includes tax credits and noncash benefits as income) for a family of four in the city was $43,890 in 2022, per the report. By borough, the poverty rates were highest in the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn.
What's more, child poverty surged from 2021 to 2022, rising to 25% of children living in poverty, the report found.
The findings conjure a stark contrast with the ultrawealthy in New York City, which, as of 2023, had the highest concentration of millionaires worldwide, with 340,000 millionaires, according to the London-based firm Henley & Partners.
"Our city is in the midst of an affordability crisis. Alarmingly, this year's annual Poverty Tracker report observes the sharpest one-year increase in poverty we've found since launching the study in 2012. This would be deeply troubling at any point, but it is particularly disturbing given the steady progress New York City has made to reduce poverty in years prior," Robin Hood CEO Richard R. Buery Jr. said in a press release with the report.
Buery cited the expired pandemic-era financial supports, such as the expanded child tax credit, as examples of the city's progress in the past. Across the nation, some 5 million children slipped into poverty in 2022 after those expanded credits and monthly payments expired. The US House passed a bill for a boosted child tax credit in January; it's now awaiting action in the Senate, where it is likely to pass.
"We know that fully refundable tax credits, housing vouchers, and childcare subsidies can move millions out of poverty and hardship. But we have lacked the will to keep these policies in force," Buery said in the press release.