Senior Poverty Rises for Fifth Straight Year in US
The poverty rate among Americans aged 65 and older climbed for the fifth consecutive year in 2025, reaching 15.4% under the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) — the highest rate of any age group, according to NPR. The rise came even as overall poverty in the United States fell to a record low, underscoring the widening financial insecurity facing older adults.
A Trend Unique to Older Americans
An analysis by the AARP Foundation of new Census Bureau data found that seniors were the only age group to see their poverty rate rise every year since 2020. “We are seeing people 50 to 64, by every single measure, in a more precarious position,” said Claire Casey, president of the AARP Foundation. The SPM rate for adults 65 and over has grown from 9.4% in 2020 to 15.4% today.
According to USA Today, more than 10 million older adults now live in poverty, up from 9.5 million in 2024, and nearly 17% of older women fall below the SPM threshold. The increase since 2020 was the largest among all age groups.
The SPM is considered a more accurate gauge than the official poverty measure because it accounts for taxes, government benefits, and necessary expenses such as medical care.
Bucking a National Improvement
The senior poverty increase stands in sharp contrast to broader economic gains. According to the Census Bureau’s report “Poverty in the United States: 2025”, the official poverty rate fell to a record low of 10.2% in 2025, with 34.5 million people in poverty nationwide. The overall SPM rate was 13.1%, essentially unchanged from the prior year.
As NPR reported, the average US family’s income rose 2.6% after inflation to $87,460 in 2025. Casey acknowledged the gains were worth celebrating but noted that “those gains were not shared equally,” adding that they may already be undermined by safety-net cuts and rising prices.
Social Security’s Role — and Its Risk
Census data show Social Security kept nearly 28.8 million people out of poverty in 2025, making it the nation’s largest antipoverty program, especially for those 65 and older. The Justice in Aging advocacy group noted that without the program, more than 23 million additional adults and children would fall below the poverty line.
Yet the program’s finances are under mounting pressure. USA Today reported that the retirement trust fund is projected to be depleted in the final months of 2032 — a date moved up from 2033 because of tax provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — which would force an automatic 22% across-the-board benefit cut absent congressional action. “This would be devastating to older adults, and especially low-income older adults who don’t have any other income or resources to fall back on,” said Tracey Thomas Gronniger of Justice in Aging.
Working More, Saving Less
AARP Foundation’s quarterly surveys of low-income older adults paint a picture of households stretched to the breaking point. Nearly a third said their household ran out of food before they had money to buy more, and a third lacked enough savings to cover a $100 emergency expense, up from 28% in the spring. The number of employed older adults reporting at least one additional source of paid work ticked up to nearly two-thirds, “suggesting many are adapting to ongoing cost pressures by piecing together multiple income sources,” the foundation said.
Older adults are also among those subject to newly expanded work requirements for food assistance and Medicaid. As those rules and other changes roll out, enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has dropped by an estimated five million people, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
“Too many older Americans — and frankly, too many Americans writ large — are working full-time jobs or more and not making above what you could consider a decent wage,” Casey said. “That is something that we, I think, as a society, have to grapple with.”
What to Watch
Republicans say the recent program changes are reducing fraud and that their policies are lowering costs; a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee told NPR that Senate Republicans “remain committed to lowering costs and making the American Dream more affordable and accessible.”
With America’s population aging rapidly and Social Security’s solvency deadline approaching, the coming years will test whether policymakers can reverse a trend that has now persisted through five consecutive Census reports. Analysts caution that the 2025 data predates more recent economic strains, including inflation and rising gas prices, meaning the full picture for older Americans may yet worsen.