Senior poverty rate rises for fifth straight year, AARP Foundation finds

AARP analysis: 15.4% of seniors in poverty, nearly 17% for women

The AARP Foundation analysis, drawn from the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure — which accounts for taxes, government benefits and additional expenses — found 15.4% of seniors lived in poverty in 2025. The figure for women 65 and older was nearly 17%, and the analysis identified 3 million additional seniors in poverty since 2019.

The AARP Foundation finds women are far more likely than men to age into poverty, and the trend starts earlier as low-income older adults struggle to stay employed and save in the crucial years before retirement.

The senior poverty trend runs against the overall direction of last year’s data. The average U.S. family made more money in 2025, and the broader poverty rate fell to a record low — figures the Trump administration and its supporters have highlighted. “Senate Republicans remain committed to lowering costs and making the American Dream more affordable and accessible,” Bernadette Breslin of the National Republican Senatorial Committee said in a statement.

AARP Foundation President Claire Casey said the latest Census figures are worth celebrating but added that “those gains were not shared equally.” Analysts warn the gains may already be undermined by social safety net cuts and rising prices.

Casey said older adults between 50 and 64 — the cohort closest to retirement — face the most acute strain. “We are seeing people 50 to 64, by every single measure, in a more precarious position,” Casey said. “One in eight Americans in that age group now lives in poverty, and a lot more are just above that line.”

Census data shows Social Security kept nearly 29 million people out of poverty last year. The group struggling the most in the AARP Foundation survey is adults aged 50-64, including nearly a third who reported a significant drop in household income in the previous three months.

That precarity leaves many older workers unable to set aside retirement savings, Casey said. “Those are folks who are not able really to put anything aside for their future because they’re thinking about how am I going to get food on the table? How am I going to afford my housing?”

The Census data is from last year, and a lot has changed in the economy since then, including inflation and rising gas prices after the U.S. and Israel launched a war with Iran. AARP Foundation tracks conditions more closely through quarterly surveys of low-income older adults.

In the foundation’s summer results, nearly a third of respondents said their household ran out of food before they had money to buy more. A third said they did not have enough savings to cover a $100 emergency expense, up from 28% in the spring survey.

From the spring survey, the foundation cited an unnamed man over 65: “I bought less food and used that money to pay the increase in my rent that went up by 33% at the beginning of this year to pay for the renovations taking place.”

What could be a “small crisis for many of us, like your car breaking down or having to take some time off to care for a relative,” can be devastating for an older low-income worker, Casey said. “You’re much more likely to end up in the long-term unemployed, and you’re much more likely to end up in a job that makes less than the one you were in.”

The number of employed older adults who reported at least one additional source of paid work also ticked up this year to nearly two-thirds, “suggesting many are adapting to ongoing cost pressures by piecing together multiple income sources,” the Foundation report said.

Housing pressure falls particularly hard on older women. According to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, half of the oldest women who head households — and 60% of those who rent — are burdened by high housing costs. Such women on average have lower income than men, and the gap increases with age. Federal data also finds older adults are the fastest-growing homeless population.

Older adults are also among those subject to newly expanded work requirements for food assistance and Medicaid. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank, estimates that enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has dropped by an estimated five million people so far.

Republicans say the changes are reducing fraud. Casey and others worry that added paperwork will push off many who qualify for the aid, which could make it harder to save for retirement in what are typically peak-earning years and leave older adults more dependent on Social Security.

“Too many older Americans and frankly, too many Americans writ large, are working full-time jobs or more and not making above what you could consider a decent wage,” Casey said. “That is something that we, I think, as a society, have to grapple with.”