This article has been updated.
Newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that there was an increase in the number of San Antonians living on wages below the federal poverty level in 2022 compared to previous years.
Of the city’s estimated 1.4 million residents, 18.7% — nearly 270,000 people — were below the poverty level, according to the bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) for 2022. In 2021, about 240,000 people lived below the poverty level, about 17% of San Antonians.
The nearly 2% increase almost matches the 1.5% margin of error for the data set, meaning it didn’t change enough to be considered statistically significant.
The annual survey has a higher margin of error because its data comes from a smaller slice of the population compared to the decennial census, said State Demographer and UTSA Professor Lloyd Potter.
“It may not be statistically different, but certainly the trend looks like it’s going in that direction,” Potter told the San Antonio Report.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who has spent his time in office launching affordable housing and workforce development initiatives to stem poverty in the city, said the near-stagnant poverty rate is frustrating, but “we can’t get myopic on the poverty data.”
“This is long-term change that we’re trying to make,” Nirenberg said. “We’re beginning to see some progress in terms of the … generational poverty in our city. … I feel confident saying that because I know, for the first time in a generation, we’re making the investments that can create that momentum.”
The national percentage of people living below poverty is 12.6%; in Texas, it’s 14%.
San Antonio remains one of the most impoverished major cities in the U.S., but unlike in 2020, it didn’t top the list in 2022.
Here’s a list of the top 10 most populous cities in 2022 and their poverty rates:
- New York City: 18.3%
- Los Angeles: 16.8%
- Chicago: 17.2%
- Houston: 20%
- Phoenix: 13.9%
- Philadelphia: 21.7%
- San Antonio: 18.7%
- San Diego: 11.3%
- Dallas: 17.8%
- Austin: 11%
The number of people in San Antonio receiving benefits through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the formal name for what’s commonly known as food stamps, increased by nearly 5% to nearly 340,000 in 2022.
Bexar County’s poverty rate in 2022 was 15.7% or 314,000 people, an increase of 1% since 2021, but the change was also statistically insignificant.
The county-level data includes the more affluent, suburban cities such as Alamo Heights, which drives the poverty rate down, Potter said.
And within San Antonio, “poverty is not distributed evenly,” he said, noting that the North Side of Bexar County has historically seen lower poverty rates. “That’s one of our challenges is that we have these geographic concentrations of poverty.”
The 2022 federal poverty income level, which is adjusted each year for inflation, was $13,590 for an individual and $23,030 for a family of three.
But the poverty level is far below what would be considered a living wage or “survival budget” in most cities.
The annual cost of household essentials in Bexar County, according to wage advocacy organization United for ALICE, was more than $27,000 for an individual in 2021. Meanwhile, the federal poverty level was $12,880 for a single adult — less than half of what the organization estimated someone would need to survive, not including savings for emergencies or future goals like college or retirement.
In 2021, 46% of households in Bexar County — that’s more than 240,000 households — couldn’t afford the essentials such as housing, child care, food, transportation, health care and a basic smartphone plan, according to ALICE, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.
The portion of Bexar County households below the ALICE threshold has not improved over the last decade.
In 2010, 41% could not afford the essentials.
“ALICE households and households in poverty are forced to make tough choices, such as deciding between quality childcare or paying the rent — choices that have long-term consequences not only for their families, but for all,” the 2021 ALICE report for Texas states.
Health insurance coverage increased in over half of U.S. states in 2022, and Texas was one of them, according to the Census data released Thursday.
“The changes in uninsured rates are impacted by multiple factors including the demographic makeup of a population and the economy,” David Waddington, chief of the Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division at the Census Bureau, stated in a news release. “For seven of the states with lower uninsured rates in 2022, the difference was driven by increased private coverage,” including in Texas.
The uninsured rate fell in the most recent American Community Survey — just over 16% of Texans were uninsured in 2022, down from 18% in 2021. The portion of San Antonians who are uninsured remained flat at about 18% in both years.
