Poverty in California Remains Steady, Among the Highest in the Nation

The latest poverty data show Californians continued to face widespread economic hardship last year, even before major federal cuts to vital programs took effect, underscoring the need for bold state action to prevent poverty from rising further.

In 2025, California’s poverty rate remained essentially unchanged since 2024, at 17.3%, second only to Louisiana. The state’s poverty rate has returned to, and exceeded, pre-pandemic levels, erasing the historic poverty reduction seen in 2021 following significant, but temporary, investments in the child tax credit, food assistance, and other key antipoverty public programs. New data show that nearly 7 million Californians — more than the populations of Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose combined —  did not have enough resources to afford basic necessities like food and housing. These estimates are based on the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which provides a comprehensive picture of families’ economic well-being, by accounting for both the cost of basic needs and resources from public supports.

The persistently high poverty level is especially concerning as California enters a new and more challenging policy environment. In 2025, the first year of the second Trump administration, Congress enacted far-reaching legislation, namely H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill”, which made historic cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid — CalFresh and Medi-Cal in California — amid other federal actions that threatened families’ economic security, including the longest federal government shutdown in US history. These cuts affect programs that are central to California’s safety net and have long played an important role in reducing poverty. CalFresh alone helps lift hundreds of thousands of Californians out of poverty each year.

The full effects of many recent federal policy changes are not yet reflected in the 2025 poverty rate. As cuts to food assistance, health coverage, and other public supports take effect over the coming years, California is likely to see poverty and economic hardship rise further. Understanding where poverty stood before these changes provides an important baseline for assessing their effects in the years ahead. This report examines how poverty in California has changed over time and how experiences differ across age and racial and ethnic groups.

Nearly 7 million Californians lived in poverty in 2025, according to new US Census data based on the Supplemental Poverty Measure — a more comprehensive reflection of economic well-being than the Official Poverty Measure. California’s overall poverty rate declined slightly to 17.3% in 2025, down from 17.7% in 2024, though the change was not statistically significant. The child poverty rate declined to 16.6%, which was also not statistically different from the 2024 rate. The unchanged poverty rates remain above pre-pandemic levels and far above the historic lows of 2021, when expanded public supports helped millions of families make ends meet.

California’s high poverty rate — and the steep declines achieved when public supports were expanded in 2021 — underscore the critical role public supports play in helping families meet basic needs and the importance of ensuring eligible families can access them. In 2025, increased attacks and misinformation targeting immigrant and mixed-status families and the federal government shutdown disrupted access to key programs, including CalFresh, and created confusion around eligibility for many Californians. While the 2025 data cannot isolate the effect of the decline in CalFresh program participation we’re already seeing, it underscores how fragile economic security is for millions of California families and how elevated the state’s poverty rate remains above the historically low 2021 levels.

Poverty Increased Across All Age Groups, with Child Poverty Now More than Double 2021 Levels

Poverty rose significantly across all age groups from 2021 to 2025, though rates vary among children, adults, and older adults. Notably:

• Child poverty more than doubled since 2021, reflecting a weakened safety net and costs associated with raising children. Child poverty has risen since 2021 from 7.5% to more than double that in 2025 at 16.6%. The end of pandemic-era safety net programs has directly contributed to this trend. For example, the expanded federal child tax credit (CTC) reduced child poverty by 4.3% in 2021. In 2024, the CTC kept just 1.8% of children out of poverty, a marked reduction from 2021. Costs associated with raising children (such as child care) also contribute to relatively higher poverty rates. Data from the RAPID Survey Project show that from November 2022 to July 2025, 56% of California families with children under age 6, on average, reported difficulty affording one or more basic needs. Without state action, recent federal attacks on programs that support families with children threaten to exacerbate child poverty. 
• At 21.5%, poverty remains highest for older adults in California. This trend is largely due to higher out-of-pocket medical expenses for older adults. Chronic health conditions become more common with age, and managing these conditions often requires ongoing care, medications, and other health services that can add to out-of-pocket expenses. Recent state actions — such as reducing Medi-Cal asset limits — specifically puts older adults at risk for higher health-related expenses, further compounding the high poverty level among older adults.
• Poverty rates for adults 18-64 are significantly higher in 2025, as compared with 2021. Specifically, poverty for Californians ages 18 to 64 rose from 11.1% in 2021 to 16.3% in 2024. Many of the policies in H.R. 1, such as harsher CalFresh time limit rules and increased administrative hurdles to maintain Medi-Cal, will specifically target this age range. As a result, thousands of adults in California could lose access to food assistance and health care, likely resulting in increased poverty levels.

Black and Latinx Californians Continue to Face Economic Barriers, Resulting in Relatively High Poverty Levels

Poverty increased for many Californians of color from 2021 to 2025.¹While this analysis displays Native Americans as a racial/ethnic group, the data does not specify Tribal citizenship, which reflects the political relationship between Tribal nations and the federal government. This analysis should be interpreted with that context and the known data limitations for Native Americans. These increases were most pronounced for Black and Latinx Californians, further widening racial disparities in the state. For Black Californians, poverty rates have more than doubled in the last four years, rising from 9.5% in 2021 to 20.5% in 2025. Latinx Californians saw an increase almost as large, from 12.6% in 2021 to 22.6% in 2025. Such racial and ethnic disparities in poverty reflect generations of systemic racism that continues to persist. Racial discrimination in housing, access to banking, education, and taxation have all contributed to the racial income and wealth inequalities reflected in today’s poverty estimates.

Recent federal and state actions will disproportionately harm Californians of color and immigrants and are likely to push more Black and Latinx Californians into poverty in future years. Federal cuts to Medicaid and CalFresh, as well as state policy choices to freeze Medi-Cal enrollment for undocumented Californians and eliminate dental benefits for certain groups of immigrants, will take health coverage away from millions of Californians, force families to delay or forgo care, experience food insecurity, and face greater risks of falling into poverty. Latinx Californians represent more than half of Medi-Cal enrollees and CalFresh participants, While Black Californians make up approximately 7% of Medi-Cal and 9% of CalFresh enrollees.

Without strong state policy interventions, the recent federal and state policy changes will widen racial and ethnic disparities, leaving Californians of color with fewer resources to stay healthy, build wealth, and achieve economic security. Protecting Medi-Cal, food assistance, and other supports while advancing more equitable tax policies is critical to ensuring all Californians can share in the state’s prosperity.

2025 Previews Hardship Ahead for Californians Unless the State Takes Bold Action to Address Poverty

The quick rise of California’s poverty rate to pre-pandemic levels shows that poverty is a policy choice. After the end of historic temporary investments in 2021, millions of Californians still struggle to afford basic needs. The new Census data show particularly high poverty rates among older adults and deep racial disparities that leave Black and Latinx Californians more likely to experience poverty.

The 2025 data preview the greater hardship ahead for California families if state leaders do not take bold action soon. Federal cuts to food assistance, health care, and other public supports that help lift millions out of poverty each year are likely to push poverty even higher and widen existing disparities as they begin taking effect. California has commonsense options to raise additional ongoing revenue to mitigate the harm of these cuts and make the investments necessary to reduce poverty in the long run. For example, state leaders could build on recent efforts to make corporate taxes fairer and redirect some of the billions of dollars California loses each year on tax breaks for profitable corporations to families and individuals struggling to meet basic needs. California has seen how quickly poverty can fall when families have the resources they need, and state leaders have the tools to continue building on hard-won progress.

Alissa Anderson, Hannah Orbach-Mandel, Kayla Kitson, Leslie Ortiz, Laura Pryor, Nishi Nair, Monica Saucedo, and Omar Morales contributed to this report.

Every Californian deserves to live in a world free from violence. However, this is not the reality for millions of Californians — especially women, people of color, transgender, and non-binary Californians — who experience domestic and sexual violence every year. Programs that provide essential services to survivors are critical tools in protecting survivors’ safety and helping them heal and recover. However, federal cuts have resulted in large funding gaps for these programs, and ongoing threats by Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration, including a federal funding freeze or additional budget cuts, would harm the ability of service providers to support survivors. Ongoing funding at the state and federal level is needed to ensure that survivors are provided with the crucial services they need.

How are Programs Supporting Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence Funded?

California receives federal dollars through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) that help fund programs that provide survivors with services like emergency shelter, counseling, and financial assistance. However, the lack of a federal fiscal year (FFY) 2026 congressional appropriations package and ongoing federal instability due to shifting prosecution styles have left programs in the dark about the longevity and stability of their grants.

Where Do the Victims of Crime Act Funds Come From?

The Victims of Crime Act was a bipartisan effort passed in 1984 with the purpose to help survivors of crime with the associated costs like medical bills and lost wages. The passage of VOCA established the Crime Victims’ Fund, which is what holds the dollars to support survivors. The money in the fund is collected by the federal government and comes from criminal fines, penalties, forfeited bail bonds, and special assessments paid by people or corporations convicted of federal crimes.

Those dollars do not directly go to states. Congress authorizes the release of a set amount of money, or cap, each year from the fund. As shown in the following diagram, the process of distributing the funds involves multiple steps and allocates funds to several purposes, before ultimately reaching the states to support crime victim services.

Once the funds have gone through every step in the above chart, the very last step is awarding 47.5% of the remaining balance in grants to states. This is not the only way these dollars can go to states to support victim services — shelters also get funding through other federal agencies and grants — but the dollars awarded through the victim assistance formula grants are the most direct and most flexible.

In California, the money goes to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, who administers the funding to eligible organizations that provide direct services to survivors.

Federal Funding Levels are Inconsistent, Causing Challenges for Survivor Service Providers

Unfortunately, while this funding is necessary to provide crucial support to survivors, it is currently insufficient due to federal funding cuts. Since 2019, funding has fallen far short of levels needed to maintain the services local organizations provide to more than 816,000 victims of crime in California. While the state stepped in and provided $103 million in one-time funding in 2024 and $100 million in one-time funding in 2025 to backfill federal VOCA funding gaps, the state has not made an ongoing commitment to fund these vital programs that support survivors.

Due to changes in the amount Congress decides to allocate each year to be released from the fund and large fluctuations in the amount collected in federal fines and fees, funding for survivors is precarious. As shown in the chart below, there have been large swings in the amount in the Crime Victims Fund, such as in 2017 when there was a $4.3 billion settlement from Volkswagen that led to a massive increase in the amount of funding sent to California the following year. These swings in funding levels have largely been due to unexpectedly large criminal fines and settlements, which can change drastically from year to year and create instability so programs cannot count on consistent funding to provide the critical services necessary for survivors.

What Are the Current Threats to This Funding?

While the dollars in the Crime Victims Fund come from criminal fines and fees, they are unfortunately still under threat due to a lack of a final FFY 26 appropriations package and a decrease in federal prosecution of white-collar crimes. In addition to decreasing federal funding, the Trump administration could pursue several potential actions that would harm survivors and service providers by:

• Putting new grant conditions on the funds programs receive to limit who can be served or what services are prioritized;
• Working with Congress to reduce or zero out how much is released from the fund each year; or
• Using VOCA funding release to fund programs that do not support survivors or victims of crime.

How can state and federal policymakers better support survivors?

Programs that support survivors can be better resourced in two ways:

1. State-Level: The state can help fill the gaps left by the federal government cutting VOCA funding to ensure that every Californian can feel safe. Ongoing, stable funding is crucial for service providers to be able to best support survivors.
2. Federal-Level: Do not continue to make cuts to VOCA funding. Proposed and planned federal budget cuts threaten the ability of domestic and sexual violence service providers to care for survivors, which puts the health and well-being of millions of Californians at risk in favor of tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. Instead, Congress should appropriate adequate funding to be released each year from the fund in order for service providers to maintain and grow their critical programs.

Women in California continue to face economic barriers that undermine equitable access to economic stability and well-being. In 2024, 18.4% of California women lived in poverty, reflecting persistent inequities in pay, caregiving demands and the cost of child care, and inadequate political representation. Racial poverty gaps for women of color also persist in large part due to the intersectionality of racism and sexism they have historically endured, with Black and Latina Californians experiencing poverty rates that are approximately 10 percentage points higher than rates for white women, according to new Census data.

When women thrive, their families and communities prosper. However, women still struggle to afford basic needs, and systemic racism and gender inequities have meant that despite decades of progress in job opportunities and earnings, women still face barriers to equity.

Recent federal and state cuts to life-saving programs will lead to an even greater rise in poverty and further entrench gender inequities unless policymakers take bold action to reverse course. The harmful Republican megabill, H.R. 1, drastically cuts funding for health care, food assistance, and other basic supports for millions of women across the United States, using that cost savings to pay for tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations. Given that women make up the majority of recipients of food assistance and women — especially women of color — already face health disparities, these cuts will make it harder for women in California to make ends meet. The 2025-26 California state budget also includes significant cuts to health care access that will likely worsen existing inequities women face.

Confronting the harm to California’s communities requires bolder action from state leaders. With 7 million Californians living in poverty — even before these extraordinary budget cuts fully take effect — state leaders should do everything possible to support investments that help California women afford essential needs, including health care, food, child care, and housing. These investments are possible if leaders raise significant, ongoing revenue, particularly from the corporations and wealthy individuals that are overwhelmingly benefiting from recent massive federal tax cuts.

H.R. 1 and the Federal Budget

H.R. 1, the harmful Republican mega bill passed in July 2025, will deeply harm Californians by cutting funding for essential programs like health care, food assistance, and education.

See how California leaders can respond and protect vital supports.

Learn More

Poverty Rates for Women in 2024 Signal Further Challenges Ahead

Using new US Census data, the Supplemental Poverty Measure — a more comprehensive reflection of economic well-being than the Official Poverty Measure — shows that the poverty rate for women in California remains high and is now significantly higher than the rate for men. Although the poverty rates for California’s men and women have followed a nearly identical trend since 2019, the poverty rate for women in 2024 (18.4%) was significantly higher than the rate for men (17.0%).

Poverty rates for both men and women hit significant lows in 2021, which reflected the success of pandemic-era policies like the expanded federal Child Tax Credit in reducing poverty. However, the gap in poverty rates in 2024 between men and women is a warning sign for women. H.R. 1 slashed funding for SNAP (CalFresh food assistance in California) and Medicaid (Medi-Cal in California) and severely reduced access to preventive care, primary care, and reproductive and sexual health care, all of which will especially harm women. Given the higher poverty rates women experienced in 2024, the cuts to proven poverty-reducing programs will fall hardest on women and risk pushing more into poverty.

Poverty for Older Women and the Rise in Poverty for Adult Women Are Both Alarmingly High

Older women faced a staggeringly high poverty rate in 2024. Women ages 65 and up had a poverty rate of 22.7% in 2024, over 5 percentage points higher than the overall poverty rate for women. Older adults are subject to higher out-of-pocket medical expenses, which contribute to their higher poverty rates and will only worsen with the policies from the federal and state budgets. Both H.R. 1 and the state budget include harmful policies and cuts to health care programs that will make accessing health care for older adults even more expensive. Additionally, new work requirements are more likely to harm older women who had left the workforce to care for children or family members. Together, these cuts and policies will further push older women into poverty.

Adult women had the largest increase in poverty since 2021. While older women are more likely to be in poverty, the percentage of adult women in poverty increased the most across all age groups and genders from 10.4% in 2021 to 17.2% in 2024. This is consistent with the trend for all adults statewide, and is a worrying signal for adult women. Adult women are more likely to be paid low wages, are paid about $10,000 less on average than men, and spend a higher percentage of their earnings on rent, all of which contribute to adult women facing large increases in poverty over time.

H.R. 1 — the harmful Republican megabill — does not address these inequities adult women face. Instead, it reverses progress that had been made in granting more adults access to affordable health insurance. H.R. 1 contains multiple provisions that will result in adults losing their health care. Administrative burdens like work requirements and increased eligibility checks for adults as well as new copayments on certain Medi-Cal services for low-income adults will likely result in millions of Californian adults — who are already the age group most likely to lack health insurance — losing coverage and pushing more adults and especially adult women into poverty.

Racial Inequities Persist, Especially for Women of Color

While poverty increased across all racial and ethnic groups in California from 2021 to 2024, poverty rates remain the highest for Black and Latinx Californians, especially Black and Latinx women. Over one in four Black women (26.1%) were in poverty in 2024 and 23.2% of Latinx women were in poverty, both of which are significantly higher than the 14.1% of white women. These disparities are evidence of generations of systemic racism, as well as racial discrimination in housing, access to banking, education, and taxation that have all contributed to a racial wealth gap evident in this poverty data.

Black women specifically — who face the highest poverty rates in the state — have endured centuries of exploitation, racism, sexism, and systemic injustices. In 2024, over half of Black women experienced racism or discrimination at work. Additionally, women of color face disparities in health outcomes and are more than twice as likely as white women to face homelessness.

H.R. 1 will disproportionately harm Californians of color and immigrants, which will only deepen inequities that women of color face. Federal cuts to Medicaid would take health coverage away from millions of Californians of color, forcing families to delay or forgo care, take on medical debt, and face greater risks of falling into poverty. More than one in three Californians — nearly 15 million people — rely on Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, for health coverage. Latinx Californians represent more than half of Medi-Cal enrollees and Black Californians make up nearly 7% of enrollees.

At the same time, monthly premium costs for Covered California, the state’s health insurance marketplace for people who do not qualify for Medi-Cal, are projected to rise by an average of 66% due to the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits, with even steeper increases for communities of color.

Federal actions also permanently gut the federal estate tax, allowing wealthy families to pass up to $30 million to their heirs tax-free, perpetuating wealth inequality and the racial wealth gap.

Without strong state policy interventions, recent federal actions will deepen racial and ethnic disparities especially for women of color, leaving Californians of color with fewer resources to stay healthy, build wealth, and achieve economic security. Protecting Medi-Cal and advancing more equitable tax policies are critical to ensuring all Californians can share in the state’s prosperity.

First Look: Understanding the Governor’s Proposed 2026-27 California Budget

Learn about the key pieces of the 2026-27 California budget proposal, and see how the governor addresses affordability, federal cuts, and California’s fiscal priorities.

Read Report

Women Renters in California Experience High Poverty Rates

Housing is the single largest cost in most family budgets, and high housing costs are pushing more people, especially those already facing systemic barriers, into deeper hardship. California renters are particularly likely to experience poverty due to unaffordable housing costs, which threaten their economic and housing stability.

Over one-quarter (28.1%) of women renters were in poverty in 2024, which is significantly higher than the rate for women homeowners at 11.3%. Renters are most affected by the housing affordability crisis in California, with over half of renters paying over 30% of their income towards housing.

While renters consistently face a higher poverty rate than homeowners, this is especially the case for women renters. The percentage of women renters in poverty is significantly higher than the percentage of men. Women are consistently more likely than men to face unaffordable housing costs. Women have long faced historical racism and sexism in the housing market that when combined with gender inequities like lower pay, less accumulated wealth, and a higher likelihood to be caring for children continue to keep women renters in poverty.

Renters — and especially women renters — need support. However, future federal policy choices may exacerbate poverty among renters. Proposals from the Trump administration and the House for the upcoming federal fiscal year included cuts to rental assistance and affordable housing funds. Meanwhile, the Senate proposed level funding for Housing Choice Vouchers — the main federal rental assistance program — which is still not sufficient to fully fund voucher renewals for current participants, and could result in an estimated 14,400 households, encompassing 31,600 people, losing housing vouchers in California. Additionally, neither the House nor Senate has proposed sufficient funding for fully transitioning Emergency Housing Voucher recipients into the Housing Choice Voucher program, which currently serves over 15,000 people in California.

The lack of federal and state investments in affordable housing and rental assistance, combined with the enacted federal cuts to health and food assistance, will mean more women will face impossible choices between having enough food, accessing needed medical care, and paying rent.

State Leaders Have the Tools to Help California Women Living in Poverty

Women in California face continued disparities across all aspects of their lives, and the poverty rates for women in the state have remained high. Recent federal and state budget decisions  strip away crucial safety net programs for women and will further entrench existing inequalities. In order to meaningfully reduce poverty amongst women in California, state policymakers must raise revenue to fund programs that are proven to reduce poverty. This starts with making sure that corporations and wealthy individuals pay their fair share in taxes, especially given the massive federal tax cuts they will be getting from H.R. 1 which are being financed by gutting the very safety net programs that help lift women out of poverty. State policymakers should begin by:

• Ending California’s most costly corporate tax break — the water’s edge loophole — which allows corporations to avoid around $3 billion in California taxes each year and deprives the state of needed resources to address the most pressing concerns facing Californians.
• Preventing profitable corporations from completely wiping out their tax bills by placing reasonable limits on their tax credits and deductions, ensuring they contribute to state services just like all Californians.
• Instituting a graduated corporate tax rate to ensure California’s most profitable corporations pay their fair share to support services all Californians need.

Poverty is a policy choice. State policymakers have the tools to ensure that all California women  have the resources needed to thrive.