The poverty rate is falling, but not for older Americans

More Americans are spending their golden years in poverty.

According to the newly released US Census Bureau report on poverty , household income reached a record high last year and the overall poverty rate fell.

But the tale is the opposite for seniors. Poverty among Americans age 65 and older rose for the fifth consecutive year and has jumped roughly 45% since 2019 — the highest rate of any age group, an AARP Foundation analysis found .

That translates to 10 million seniors living in poverty, up from 5.1 million seven years ago.

"No other age group has seen that same pattern, and that should really stop us in our tracks. It's alarming," AARP Foundation president Claire Casey told Yahoo Finance.

For a single renter, the poverty line starts at just over $19,000 a year.

"Imagine trying to cover rent, groceries, utilities, and healthcare on that," Casey said.

Last year, poverty rates were higher for women over 50 than for men, and the poverty level for women 65 and over is close to 17%, which is "really astonishing and something we should all be paying attention to," Casey said.

The problem starts early in their working lives. "Women often reach retirement after a lifetime of lower earnings and less opportunity to save," said Dan Doonan, executive director of the National Institute on Retirement Security. "Poverty in later life can be the result of these risks piling up — not bad decisions."

Indeed, the poverty slide starts well before age 65.

More than 7 million people in their 50s and early 60s are already living in poverty, Casey said.

"Many of us think of our 50s as a person's peak earning years, when they're at the height of their professions," she said. "But when you break down the census figures and look at the cohort just before the traditional retirement age, those 50 to 64, the numbers tell a different story."

A single event can be the catalyst that has years-long repercussions, Doonan added.

"A market downturn, a health problem, or the cost of caring for someone else can drain the resources they have, and because women tend to live longer, they may have to stretch what remains over many years, often on their own," he said.

Only one in four low-income older adults has access to a workplace retirement savings plan, and few earn enough to save, according to AARP Foundation data.

Nearly half of Americans report having less than $100,000 saved for retirement, including nearly 2 in 10 with no retirement savings, according to recent research .