More than 167,000 Chicagoans lived on $21 or less a day

About 17% of Chicagoans lived below the poverty line in 2024, with more than a third of them surviving on less than $21 a day.

What is deep poverty?

More than 167,000 Chicagoans lived in what the federal government calls “deep poverty” in 2024, with their households earning less than half the federal poverty threshold and each person living on less than $21 a day.   

Residents in deep poverty accounted for more than a third of the over 447,000 Chicagoans who lived below the federal poverty line, according to the most recent available Census data.

That means those Chicagoans earned at most $15,060 a year as individuals, or up to $31,200 for the typical family of four. For those in deep poverty, income was less than half that.

Poverty by the neighborhood

While about 17% of Chicagoans lived below the poverty line, including nearly a fourth of all families with children, the rate was much higher in some parts of the city.

Communities on the South Side reported the highest poverty rate, at 23% of residents — nearly double the North Side rate. That included nearly a third of all families with children.

Deep poverty was more evenly distributed across the city. The West Side had the highest deep poverty rate, at 6.7%, compared with 6.3% citywide.

A further breakdown of poverty by census tract, or groups of blocks, shows the rate was even higher in certain Chicago communities.

A collection of blocks in East Garfield Park on the West Side reported the highest rate of poverty among all Chicago’s communities, with three-fourths of residents below the poverty line. That included nearly two-thirds of the families in the community and over 96% of the families with children. Overall, the deep poverty rate in East Garfield Park was about 9%.

The highest rate of deep poverty was in a collection of blocks in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood, where more than 1-in-5 residents were living on less than $21 a day.

Nearly 40% of the residents of this far Southwest Side community lived below the poverty line. That included more than a third of all families and nearly two-thirds of families with children.

Poverty predictors

Employment, education and family structure were key factors in which Chicagoans were living in poverty.

Job status played a significant role when predicting poverty for individuals, highlighting the need for more employment opportunities in the city.

Only 2.4% of Chicagoans with a full-time job earned less than the federal poverty level, compared with 20% of those working part-time.

Meanwhile, nearly one-third of Chicagoans who were not working, meaning they had not worked for more than a week in the past 12 months, lived below the federal poverty line.

Educational attainment also was significant, as it often limited what jobs were available to Chicagoans. About 27% of city residents who did not complete high school lived in poverty, the Census data showed.

As educational attainment increased, the likelihood of living in poverty declined. About 22% of high school graduates lived below the poverty line, compared with 16% of those with an associate degree or some college experience.

For Chicagoans with a bachelor’s degree or higher, that rate dropped to 7%.   

Finally, family structure was a powerful determinant. The data shows that Chicago families where the primary provider was female with no spouse had a higher poverty rate than any other family structure.

About 26% of female-headed households were living below the poverty line. That compares with 14% of male-led households without a spouse and just 7% for families with both spouses present.

Opportunity through employment

While the data reveals the bleak living conditions that more than 447,000 Chicagoans grappled with daily, including the more than 167,000 living on less than $21 a day, information on these residents offers insight into potential solutions.

Poverty alleviation efforts should focus on the issues that prevent capable adults from finding full-time jobs. Evidence suggests anti-poverty programs that incentivize work have been effective in increasing employment and raising incomes to promote upward mobility.

Removing cumbersome regulations, improving the quality of education and fostering an environment in which employees, employers and communities can flourish all present opportunities for public policy solutions. Solutions that reduce poverty improve the lives of all Chicagoans, regardless of income.