Overview
- New Tipping Point data show the poverty rate rose from 12.2% to 16.3% in 2023, adding about 245,000 people and bringing the total to roughly 1.02 million across six counties.
- San Francisco recorded the region’s highest rate at 17.5%, reversing nearly a decade of earlier progress on poverty reduction.
- Nearly three in ten Bay Area residents cannot cover basic needs when near-poverty is included, or about 1.8 million people.
- Half of residents in poverty live in households with at least one full-time, year‑round worker, signaling widespread financial strain among the working poor.
- Costs outran earnings: household incomes rose 34% from 2016–2023 while the cost of living climbed 46%, including a 17% jump in grocery prices since 2021, with disparities worsening for Black (22.1%), Latino (26%), and Asian (14.1%) residents as groups push for housing, childcare, job training, and preserved CalFresh benefits.