The percentage of Connecticut residents with incomes below the poverty line ticked up above 10 percent last year, the only statistically significant increase in the country, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Connecticut’s poverty rate in 2018 was 10.4 percent, up from 9.6 percent in 2017, according to the American Community Survey’s one-year estimates released Thursday. There were 361,377 people in Connecticut living in poverty, up from 334,128.
Despite the increase, Connecticut’s poverty rate was higher in 2016 (10.5 percent) and 2015 (10.8 percent).
The 2018 increase contrasted with a three-tenths of a percentage point drop in the U.S. poverty rate, which has now been declining for five years in a row; it currently stands at 13.1 percent.
In all, 14 states saw statistically significant declines in their poverty rates last year. Connecticut’s poverty rate is lower than approximately 40 other states.
The Census Bureau measures poverty status by comparing annual income to a set of dollar values or “thresholds” that vary by family size, number of dependents and other factors. The thresholds, which do not vary by region, are updated annually based on movement in the Consumer Price Index.
