The U. S. Poverty Rate Was 10.5% in 2019, An All-Time Low

See Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2019 from The Census Bureau.

There is a time line chart below as well as a table of the historical data. Here is an excerpt from the report which has many more details:

"The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that median household income in 2019 increased 6.8% from 2018, and the official poverty rate decreased 1.3 percentage points. Meanwhile the percentage of people with health insurance coverage for all or part of 2019 was 92.0% and 8.0% of people, or 26.1 million, did not have health insurance at any point during 2019, according to the 2020 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC).

Median household income was $68,703 in 2019, an increase of 6.8% from the 2018 median. Between 2018 and 2019, the real median earnings of all workers increased by 1.4%, while the real median earnings of full-time, year-round workers increased 0.8%. The 2019 real median earnings of men and women who worked full-time, year-round increased by 2.1% and 3.0%, respectively, between 2018 and 2019. The difference between the 2018-2019 percent changes in median earnings for men and women working full-time, year-round was not statistically significant. The number of full-time, year-round workers increased by approximately 1.2 million between 2018 and 2019. Between 2018 and 2019, the total number of people with earnings increased by about 2.2 million.

The official poverty rate in 2019 was 10.5%, a decrease of 1.3 percentage points from 11.8% in 2018. This is the fifth consecutive annual decline in the national poverty rate. Since 2014, the poverty rate has fallen 4.3 percentage points, from 14.8% to 10.5%. The 2019 poverty rate of 10.5% is the lowest rate observed since estimates were initially published for 1959. The number of people in poverty in 2019 was 34.0 million, 4.2 million fewer people than 2018."

The historical data comes from Historical Poverty Tables: People and Families - 1959 to 2019 by The Census Bureau.

 

Year	Rate		Year	Rate		Year	Rate
1959	22.4		1980	13		2001	11.7
1960	22.2		1981	14		2002	12.1
1961	21.9		1982	15		2003	12.5
1962	21		1983	15.2		2004	12.7
1963	19.5		1984	14.4		2005	12.6
1964	19		1985	14		2006	12.3
1965	17.3		1986	13.6		2007	12.5
1966	14.7		1987	13.4		2008	13.2
1967	14.2		1988	13		2009	14.3
1968	12.8		1989	12.8		2010	15.1
1969	12.1		1990	13.5		2011	15
1970	12.6		1991	14.2		2012	15
1971	12.5		1992	14.8		2013	14.8
1972	11.9		1993	15.1		2014	14.8
1973	11.1		1994	14.5		2015	13.5
1974	11.2		1995	13.8		2016	12.7
1975	12.3		1996	13.7		2017	12.3
1976	11.8		1997	13.3		2018	11.8
1977	11.6		1998	12.7		2019	10.5
1978	11.4		1999	11.9
1979	11.7		2000	11.3