Gov. Gavin Newsom often boasts that California, if it were a country, would have the world’s fourth-largest economy. But despite its wealth, the state has also seen a sharp increase in poverty since the COVID-19 pandemic, and newly released data shows the disparity lingers.

An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data released this week found that 7 million California residents — 17.7% of the population — were living in poverty last year. California was tied with Louisiana in 2024 for the highest poverty rate of any U.S. state, according to The California Budget and Policy Center, a Sacramento-based think tank.

The bureau used a poverty measure that considers some, but not all, aspects of California’s infamous cost of living.

“We’re not surprised to see this poverty rate,” said Tracy Weatherb

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