Disadvantage (income poverty or material hardships or health problems)
The Poverty Tracker measures three forms of disadvantage: income poverty, material hardship, and health problems. Disadvantage is thus multidimensional and experiences of disadvantage are interrelated: health problems can spur income losses just as income loss can lead to forgone medical care and health problems. Focusing on singular forms of disadvantage fails to capture both the full extent of disadvantage and the relationships among different facets of disadvantages — but the Poverty Tracker is designed to cap- ture this wider picture. In this section, we harness this comprehensive perspective and examine overlapping experiences of disadvantage in New York City. More than half (52%) of New Yorkers faced at least one form of disadvantage in 2022, meaning disadvan- tage was far too common. This is also the largest year-to-year increase in disadvantage in recent years, increasing from 46% in 2021. Figure 4.1 shows the share of the population facing any form of disadvantage and breaks this population into the share facing one, two, or all three forms of disadvantage.
Share of adult New Yorkers facing disadvantage (2015–2021) Figure 4.1
One form of disadvantage Two forms of disadvantage
Three forms of disadvantage
70%
60%
53%
52%
52%
52%
49%
50%
48%
4%
50%
4%
4%
4%
46%
3%
3%
3%
3%
14%
16%
40%
16%
15%
12%
12%
15%
14%
30%
35%
32%
32%
33%
35%
20%
33%
31%
29%
10%
0%
2017
2021
2015
2016
2018
2020
2019
2022
Source: Annual Poverty Tracker survey data, second through fifth Poverty Tracker cohorts. Note: In 2020, the Poverty Tracker sampling design changed to include an oversample of New Yorkers of Chinese descent, including those who speak Mandarin. Thus, pre-2020 results are not directly comparable to results from 2020 to the present. See Appendix B for additional details.
THE STATE OF POVERTY AND DISADVANTAGE IN NEW YORK CITY 35
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