“The poverty rate rose from 11.7% in fall 2021 to 13.2% in the first quarter of 2023, according to the California Poverty Measure (CPM), a research effort by PPIC and the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality that accounts for housing costs and safety net benefits. Despite this uptick, poverty was still lower than before the pandemic (16.4% in 2019). In early 2023, about 5 million Californians were under the CPM poverty line (on average $39,900 yearly for a family of two adults and two children).”