We explore the anti-poverty effects of federal policy options in the areas of basic needs, family tax, and economic opportunity. Anti-poverty effects are compared to what we term a ‘pre-American Rescue Plan’ baseline, but the poverty rates presented are not estimates of poverty in 2021. Rather, they are estimates of what youth and young adult poverty could have looked like in the years prior to the pandemic had these policies been in place.
We assess the anti-poverty impact of policies by calculating SPM poverty rates and the number of youth and young adults moved out of poverty by state. We break out state-level results across three age groups: youth (ages 14 to 17), young adults (ages 18 to 24), and the whole youth and young adult population (ages 14 to 24). We also break out state-level results by racial and ethnic groups—of particular importance, as nearly half of the youth population today are youth of color.