This article from Peter G. Peterson Foundation has some facts and figures on U.S. poverty.

• It explains the difference between the Official Poverty Measure and Supplemental Poverty Measure, both calculated by the Census Bureau. The former does not consider the effects of government benefits, while the latter does. I was thinking that the spread between the two could be seen as a measure of how effective government benefits are. But the supplemental measure is actually higher than the official one (12.9% vs. 11.1% in 2023) because it also takes into account some expenses that poor families face, including health care, housing, and child support.
• Of those below the poverty line, about one-third live in deep poverty defined as half or less of the poverty level.
• Racial disparities are pretty much what you would think. But I was surprised that the poverty rate among Asian-Americans is higher than the poverty rate among white Americans. This is interesting because I know Asian-Americans have a higher median household income as a group than white Americans. For the other groups, poverty rate and median household income seem to track pretty well. For Asian-Americans, this result suggests there is a large disparity with some very high income and some very low income people. The article does not cover Native Americans.
• The (supplemental) poverty rate among children was 5.1% in 2021 due to pandemic-era programs and bounced back to 13.7% in 2023. Thanks Biden! No, literally thanks Biden 5.1% and no thanks to Congress you cold unfeeling psychopaths for the 13.7%. How can they live with themselves (answer: a majority of politicians are cold unfeeling psychopaths), and how can they be so unbelievably adept at deflecting blame that the public is unaware or supportive (answer: anti-tax and racist propaganda).

There is more interesting stuff in this article, which I may talk about in a future post.