While Washington's poverty rate has fallen considerably as the state has grown more affluent in the past decade, elder poverty appears to be growing across the state, new Census Bureau data indicates.
The number of Washingtonians older than 65 living in poverty has climbed to more than 9%, jumping by 36,500 residents since 2018 to nearly 120,000, a Seattle Times analysis of the latest census data shows. In those five years, the child poverty rate declined by 1 percentage point to 11.4%.
To measure the number of Americans unable to afford basic living expenses, the Census Bureau uses a complex formula rather than a "poverty line" or "poverty level." The calculation includes information about family size, living expenses and age. The federal poverty level for 2023, as set separately by the Department of Health and Human Services, was $24,860 for a family of three.
Between 2018 and 2022, the growth of elder poverty outpaced the decline in child poverty, raising the overall share of old and young Washingtonians living in poverty compared with five years ago.
This shift runs against prevailing trends: Historically, seniors were more likely to live below the poverty line than younger folks, but that has changed in the last half century, according to a recent congressional report on elder poverty. Since 1974, older Americans have experienced lower poverty rates than children, and their poverty rates have been lower than those 18-64 years of age since the early 1990s.
Nationally, Washington has the one of the lowest shares of residents living in poverty. For children under 18 and specifically for kids under 5, the state has consistently had one of the five lowest poverty rates in the nation.
Five years ago, the state also ranked in the top 10 for the lowest share of seniors in poverty. Now it does not, as states like Idaho and Colorado fare better.
Limited census data hints at significant disparities in the geographic distribution of Washingtonians living below the poverty line across age groups.
More than 1 in 5 residents in Grays Harbor County live in poverty. Over 40% of the children under 18 lived in poverty in 2022, which is more than twice the national average of 16.5%.
Meanwhile Yakima has the largest share of elders living in poverty. Nearly 1 in 5 residents over the age of 65 are poor. Nationally, about 1 in 10 seniors live in poverty.
