Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates: 2021

August 2025

Written by:

Isabelle R. Notter and Sara Robinson

Report Number: P30-10

Introduction

This report provides a summary of the 2021 release of the U.S. Census Bureau's Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program. SAIPE is the only source for single-year estimates of income and poverty for all counties in the United States. SAIPE also releases estimates of childhood poverty for all school districts. This report describes income and poverty trends at the state, county, and school district levels.

The following estimates are produced for 2021 from the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program:

Counties & States	School Districts
All People in Poverty	Total Population
Children Under Age 18 in Poverty	Children Ages 5 to 17
Related Children Ages 5 to 17 in Families in Poverty	Related Children Ages 5 to 17 in Families in Poverty
Children Under Age 5 in Poverty (for States Only)
Median Household Income

These model-based estimates are produced for school districts, counties and states. They are produced by combining data from administrative records, postcensal population estimates, and the decennial census with direct estimates from the American Community Survey to provide consistent and reliable single-year estimates.

Download Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates: 2021 Report [< 1.0 MB]

Tables of highest and lowest SAIPE estimates for:

Visualizations

General Cautions

Estimates for counties or states in the sorted tables may not be statistically different from estimates for other counties or states in the tables due to uncertainty in the estimates. Please see uncertainty for information associated with model-based estimates, and also general cautions about comparing model-based estimates.