Poverty trends in Minnesota

Today,  Minnesota's poverty rate stands at nearly 10%. After nearly a decade of gradual declines in the state’s poverty rate, we’ve seen an upward trend in poverty since the onset of the pandemic. 

For the past two decades, older adult (65+) poverty rates have been lower — sometimes considerably lower — than the statewide rate. Since the onset of the pandemic, Minnesota’s older adult poverty rate has increased nearly two percentage points and, for the first time since the early 2000s, older adult poverty is equivalent to the statewide poverty rate. This has been driven almost entirely by increases in poverty among our oldest older adults — those age 75+ — whose poverty rate now exceeds the statewide rate. This sudden jump in poverty among our oldest residents is highly unusual.

We have made no progress in narrowing or eliminating disparities in poverty by race. Poverty rates among Minnesota’s Black and Indigenous residents remain two to three times higher than the statewide poverty rate (25% and 30%, respectively).

Minnesota is tied for the third lowest rate of poverty in the nation. Only New Hampshire and Utah have (statistically) lower poverty rates.