LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data that sheds light on the numbers of those in poverty as part of National Poverty in America Awareness Month.

Nationwide, the Census Bureau said the official poverty rate in 2022 was 11.5%, with 37.9 million people in poverty.

Neither the rate nor the number in poverty was significantly different from 2021, the Census Bureau reported.

The official poverty rate for Black individuals decreased between 2021 and 2022. The 2022 rate was the lowest on record.

In Lake County, the U.S. Census estimated there were 66,685 residents in 2022.

Lake County’s poverty rate in 2022 was 16.8% — with a deviation of plus or minus 4.2% — accounting for 11,175 residents.

Previous years’ poverty rates, based on the American Community Survey’s one year estimates — except for 2020, for which only a five-year estimate was available — are as follows:

• 2021, 12.9%.
• 2020, 17.5%.
• 2019, 18.9%.
• 2018, 17.6%.
• 2017, 20.8%.
• 2016, 20.4%.
• 2015, 19.4%.
• 2014, 25.8%.
• 2013, 24.6%.
• 2012, 26.6%.
• 2011, 24.8%.
• 2010, 22%.

In related data, the Census Bureau said that, nationwide, the Supplemental Poverty Measure, or SPM, rate in 2022 was 12.4%, an increase of 4.6 percentage points from 2021. This accounts for the first increase in the overall SPM poverty rate since 2010.

In 2022, the SPM child poverty rate more than doubled, from 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022.

The Census Bureau said that in 2022, Social Security continued to be the most important antipoverty program, moving 28.9 million people out of SPM poverty.

Refundable tax credits moved 6.4 million people out of SPM poverty, down from 9.6 million people in 2021.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.