When analyzing the ratio of homelessness to state population, New York, Vermont, and Oregon had the highest rates in 2023. However, Washington, D.C. had an estimated 73 homeless individuals per 10,000 people, which was significantly higher than any of the 50 states. Homeless people by race The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development performs homeless counts at the end of January each year, which includes people in both sheltered and unsheltered locations. The estimated number of homeless people increased to 653,104 in 2023 – the highest level since 2007. However, the true figure is likely to be much higher, as some individuals prefer to stay with family or friends - making it challenging to count the actual number of homeless people living in the country. In 2023, nearly half of the people experiencing homelessness were white, while the number of Black homeless people exceeded 243,000. How many veterans are homeless in America? The  number of homeless veterans in the United States has halved since 2010. The state of California, which is currently suffering a homeless crisis, accounted for the highest number of homeless veterans in 2022. There are many causes of homelessness among veterans of the U.S. military, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse problems, and a lack of affordable housing.

In 2023, there were about 653,104 homeless people estimated to be living in the United States, the highest number of homeless people recorded within the provided time period. In comparison, the second-highest number of homeless people living in the U.S. within this time period was in 2007, at 647,258. How is homelessness calculated? Calculating homelessness is complicated for several different reasons. For one, it is challenging to determine how many people are homeless as there is no direct definition for homelessness. Additionally, it is difficult to try and find every single homeless person that exists. Sometimes they cannot be reached, leaving people unaccounted for. In the United States, the Department of Housing and Urban Development calculates the homeless population by counting the number of people on the streets and the number of people in homeless shelters on one night each year. According to this count, Los Angeles City and New York City are the cities with the most homeless people in the United States. Homelessness in the United States Between 2022 and 2023, New Hampshire saw the highest increase in the number of homeless people. However, California was the state with the highest number of homeless people, followed by New York and Florida. The vast amount of homelessness in California is a result of multiple factors, one of them being the extreme high cost of living, as well as opposition to mandatory mental health counseling and drug addiction. However, the District of Columbia had the highest estimated rate of homelessness per 10,000 people in 2023. This was followed by New York, Vermont, and Oregon.

In 2023, the estimated number of homeless people in the United States was highest in California, with about 181,399 homeless people living in California in that year.

In 2023, there were an estimated 324,854 white homeless people in the United States, the most out of any ethnicity. In comparison, there were around 243,624 Black or African American homeless people in the U.S. How homelessness is counted The actual number of homeless individuals in the U.S. is difficult to measure. The Department of Housing and Urban Development uses point-in-time estimates, where employees and volunteers count both sheltered and unsheltered homeless people during the last 10 days of January. However, it is very likely that the actual number of homeless individuals is much higher than the estimates, which makes it difficult to say just how many homeless there are in the United States. Unsheltered homeless in the United States California is well-known in the U.S. for having a high homeless population, and Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego all have high proportions of unsheltered homeless people. While in many states, the Department of Housing and Urban Development says that there are more sheltered homeless people than unsheltered, this estimate is most likely in relation to the method of estimation.

"Ratio of Homeless Population to General Population in major US Cities in 2011. *This represents a list of large U.S. cities for which DHS was able to confirm a recent estimate of the unsheltered population. A 2011 result is available for Seattle, WA, Miami, FL, and Boston, MA.. 2011 results are not yet available for the other cities, and their 2009 data are displayed in this chart. General population figures are 2010 estimates in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, and 2009 estimates elsewhere."

Between 2022 and 2023, New Hampshire had the highest positive percentage change in the estimated number of homeless people in the United States, with the number of homeless people living in New Hampshire increasing by 52.1 percent within this time period.

This statistic depicts the rate of homeless individuals in the United States in 2017, by metropolitan area. In 2017, the rate of homelessness per 10,000 individuals was highest in New York City, at 88.7.

Analysis of ‘Directory Of Unsheltered Street Homeless To General Population Ratio 2012’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/3938b01a-ab66-4fd1-967a-478702f97b87 on 27 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

"Ratio of Homeless Population to General Population in major US Cities in 2012. *This represents a list of large U.S. cities for which DHS was able to confirm a recent estimate of the unsheltered population. Unsheltered estimates are from 2011 except for Seattle and New York City (2012) and Chicago (2009). All General Population figures are from the 2010 U.S. Census enumeration."

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

This statistic shows the estimated number of homeless veterans in the United States in 2022, by state. In 2022, about 10,395 veterans living in California were homeless.

Abstract (en): The DC Metropolitan Area Drug Study (DC*MADS) was conducted in 1991, and included special analyses of homeless and transient populations and of women delivering live births in the DC hospitals. DC*MADS was undertaken to assess the full extent of the drug problem in one metropolitan area. The study was comprised of 16 separate studies that focused on different sub-groups, many of which are typically not included or are underrepresented in household surveys. The Homeless and Transient Population study examines the prevalence of illicit drug, alcohol, and tobacco use among members of the homeless and transient population aged 12 and older in the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Statistical Area (DC MSA). The sample frame included respondents from shelters, soup kitchens and food banks, major cluster encampments, and literally homeless people. Data from the questionnaires include history of homelessness, living arrangements and population movement, tobacco, drug, and alcohol use, consequences of use, treatment history, illegal behavior and arrest, emergency room treatment and hospital stays, physical and mental health, pregnancy, insurance, employment and finances, and demographics. Drug specific data include age at first use, route of administration, needle use, withdrawal symptoms, polysubstance use, and perceived risk. ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Performed consistency checks.; Created variable labels and/or value labels.; Standardized missing values.; Created online analysis version with question text.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.. Response Rates: The institutional response rate (i.e., for shelters and soup kitchens) was 82.6 percent. The individual interview response rate was 86.1 percent. The overall response rate was 71 percent. Persons aged 12 and older in the DC MSA who were either literally homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless, including persons who spent the previous night in an emergency shelter, in a nondomicile (e.g., vacant building, city park, car, or on the street) or who were using soup kitchens or emergency food banks. The Homeless and Transient Population study consisted of 908 interviews from four overlapping sampling frames: 477 interviews with residents in 93 shelters, 224 interviews with patrons of 31 soup kitchens and food banks, 143 interviews with "literally homeless" people from 18 major cluster encampments, and 64 interviews with literally homeless people from an area probability sample of 432 census blocks in the MSA. People who were cognitively impaired and could not complete the interview were excluded from the survey. Impairment was defined as extreme intoxification or scoring more than nine on the Short Blessed Exam (Katzman, Brown, Fuld, Peck, Schecter, and Schimmel, 1983). 2008-07-24 New files were added. These files included one or more of the following: Stata setup, SAS transport (CPORT), SPSS system, Stata system, SAS supplemental syntax, and Stata supplemental syntax files, and a tab-delimited ASCII data file. Also, the CASEID variable has been added to the dataset.2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions. Funding insitution(s): United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Produced by Research Triangle Institute in Research Triangle Park, NC.

In 2023, there were about 10,173 homeless youth living in California, the most out of any U.S. state. New York had the second-highest number of homeless youth in that year, at 4,468.

Abstract

IPUMS-International is an effort to inventory, preserve, harmonize, and disseminate census microdata from around the world. The project has collected the world's largest archive of publicly available census samples. The data are coded and documented consistently across countries and over time to facillitate comparative research. IPUMS-International makes these data available to qualified researchers free of charge through a web dissemination system.

The IPUMS project is a collaboration of the Minnesota Population Center, National Statistical Offices, and international data archives. Major funding is provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Additional support is provided by the University of Minnesota Office of the Vice President for Research, the Minnesota Population Center, and Sun Microsystems.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

Household

UNITS IDENTIFIED: - Dwellings: No - Vacant units: No - Households: Yes - Individuals: Yes - Group quarters: No - Special populations: Floating population [Population flottante]: these are the homeless people, who live anywhere, near the market places, in the factories, in shacks or even on the pavement, etc.

UNIT DESCRIPTIONS: - Dwellings: A compound is a set of buildings, enclosed or not by a wall or any other type of fence (or paling). In some case it could be reduced to a single building (single hut, house with apartments), or include a series of distinct dwelling units. It is often placed under the authority of a compound head [Chef de Concession: C.C.], especially in rural areas. - Households: A set of persons, related by blood or not, living in the same compound, who share their meals daily, and who are under the authority of a sole and same person, called the Household Head [Chef de ménage: C.M.]. This concept corresponds to the words ?ndieul? in Wolof ?ngak? in Sereer, or ?hirande? in Tukuler.

Universe

All persons living in the national territory

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

MICRODATA SOURCE: National Statistical Office

SAMPLE DESIGN: Systematic sample of every 10th household with a random start, drawn by the Minnesota Population Center

SAMPLE UNIT: Household

SAMPLE FRACTION: 10%

SAMPLE SIZE (person records): 700,199

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The questionnaire is divided into three parts. Part I is the geographical identification of the household. Part II contains questions on the demographic, economic and social characteristics of individuals in the chousehold. Part III includes two questions for individuals (economic activity and births), deaths in the household, and all questions on housing.

In the United States, California had the highest amount of homeless children and youths enrolled in their schools for the school year 2019-20 at 246,350 students. North Carolina had 28,877 recorded homeless students for the same year. A homeless child or youth is someone who lacks a fixed residence or is forced to share housing due to economic hardship.

According to a survey conducted in 2023, 71 percent of Americans who identified as Independent and 76 percent of Americans who identified as Republican believed that drug and alcohol use was a major cause of homelessness in the United States. In comparison, only 63 percent of Democrats shared this belief.

Abstract

IPUMS-International is an effort to inventory, preserve, harmonize, and disseminate census microdata from around the world. The project has collected the world's largest archive of publicly available census samples. The data are coded and documented consistently across countries and over time to facillitate comparative research. IPUMS-International makes these data available to qualified researchers free of charge through a web dissemination system.

The IPUMS project is a collaboration of the Minnesota Population Center, National Statistical Offices, and international data archives. Major funding is provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Additional support is provided by the University of Minnesota Office of the Vice President for Research, the Minnesota Population Center, and Sun Microsystems.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

Household

UNITS IDENTIFIED: - Dwellings: Yes - Vacant units: No - Households: Yes - Individuals: Yes - Group quarters: No - Special populations: Persons without any normal residence, foreign nationals, and people in orphanages, rescue homes, ashram and vagrant houses are not covered by survey.

UNIT DESCRIPTIONS: - Households: A group of persons normally living together and taking food from a common kitchen will constitute a household. The members of a household may or may not be related by blood to one another.

Universe

All population in India, except for foreigners, the homeless, or people in orphanages, rescue homes, ashram, and vagrant houses.

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

MICRODATA SOURCE: National Sample Survey Organization, Government of India

SAMPLE DESIGN: Two-staged, stratified systematic samples drawn by the country. Stage 1: In rural sector, regions are stratified based on population and crop pattern. Census villages (primary sampling units) are selected from region strata circular systematically with probability proportional to population. In urban sector, districts are stratified by population. Urban frame survey (UFS) blocks are the primary sampling units and selected from district strata circular systematically with equal probability. Stage 2: Selected large villages/blocks are split into hamlet-groups (rural) or sub-blocks (urban), some of which are randomly selected and they form the strata for Stage II, together with small villages/blocks selected in Stage I. Households are selected from those Stage II strata by circular systematically with a random start. Affluent households are over-sampled. The ratio of affluent to other households is 2:8 in rural sector and 4:6 in urban sector. In total, the central sample includes 7,284 villages and 4,792 urban blocks; the state sample includes 7,964 villages and 5,880 urban blocks.

SAMPLE UNIT: Household

SAMPLE FRACTION: .07%

SAMPLE SIZE (person records): 564,740

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

A single form that consists of 8 sections: 1) identification of sample household, 2) household characteristics, 3) demographic particulars and principal usual activity, 4) current work activity during the preceding week, 5) follow-up questions for the unemployed, 6) questions for working persons, 7) questions for children 5-14 years, and 8) questions for persons who attended domestic duties.

Response rate

COVERAGE: Entire country, in both rural and urban sectors

Abstract

IPUMS-International is an effort to inventory, preserve, harmonize, and disseminate census microdata from around the world. The project has collected the world's largest archive of publicly available census samples. The data are coded and documented consistently across countries and over time to facillitate comparative research. IPUMS-International makes these data available to qualified researchers free of charge through a web dissemination system.

The IPUMS project is a collaboration of the Minnesota Population Center, National Statistical Offices, and international data archives. Major funding is provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Additional support is provided by the University of Minnesota Office of the Vice President for Research, the Minnesota Population Center, and Sun Microsystems.

Geographic coverage

National coverage

Analysis unit

Household

UNITS IDENTIFIED: - Dwellings: No - Vacant units: No - Households: Yes - Individuals: Yes - Group quarters: No - Special populations: Floating population [Population flottante]: these are the homeless people, who live anywhere, near the market places, in the factories, in shacks or even on the pavement, etc.

UNIT DESCRIPTIONS: - Dwellings: A compound is a set of buildings, enclosed or not by a wall or by any other type of fence or paling. In some case it could be reduced to a single building (single hut, house with one or several apartments, or other cases), including a series of distinct dwelling units. Generally, it is placed under the authority of a compound head [Chef de Concession: C.C.]. A compound may include one or several household. - Households: A set of persons, related by blood or not, who live under the same roof and share part or all of their resources to cover their basic needs, in particular lodging and food. These persons are called the household members, take generally their meals together, and recognize the authority of a sole and same person, called the Household Head [Chef de ménage: C.M.]. This concept translates to the words the words ?njël? in Wolof, ?ngank? in Sereer, ?hirande? in Pulaar, and ?siitik? in Diola.

Universe

All persons living in the national territory

Kind of data

Census/enumeration data [cen]

Sampling procedure

MICRODATA SOURCE: National Statistical Office

SAMPLE DESIGN: Systematic sample of every 10th household with a random start, drawn by the Minnesota Population Center

SAMPLE UNIT: Household

SAMPLE FRACTION: 10%

SAMPLE SIZE (person records): 994,562

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The questionnaire is divided into six sections. Section A is geographic identification of the household. Section B includes questions on the individual characteristics. Section C includes questions on the deads the occurred in the household last year. Section D includes questions on out-migrants who left the household in the past five years. Section D contains housing questions, and Section F contains questions on poverty.

In 2023, the resident population of California was 38.97 million. This is a slight decrease from the previous year, with 39.03 million people in 2022. This makes it the most populous state in the U.S. Californian demographics Along with an increase in population, California’s gross domestic product (GDP) has also been increasing, from 1.7 trillion U.S. dollars in 2000 to 3.23 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023. In the same time period, the per-capita personal income has almost doubled, from 33,403 U.S. dollars in 2000 to 77,339 U.S. dollars in 2022. In 2023, the majority of California’s resident population was Hispanic or Latino, although the number of white residents followed as a close second, with Asian residents making up the third largest demographic in the state. The dark side of the Golden State While California is one of the most well-known states in the U.S., is home to Silicon Valley, and one of the states where personal income has been increasing over the past 20 years, not everyone in California is so lucky: In 2023, the poverty rate in California was about 12 percent, and the state had the fifth-highest rate of homelessness in the country during that same year, with an estimated 46 homeless people per 10,000 of the population.

In 2023/24, 3,645 people who were seen to be sleeping rough in London were aged between 36 and 45 years old, the most common age group in that year. In this same year, 1,126 people seen to be homeless were aged between 18 and 24, and a further 1,380 were aged over 55. By far, the least common age group for rough sleeping were those aged under 18, with just 13 rough sleepers in this reporting year. Demographics of London's homeless Overall, there were 10,053 people reported to be sleeping rough in London in 2022/23. Although this was fewer than in 2020/21, when the number of people sleeping rough reached 11,018, it was still much higher than in 2010/11, when this figure was 3,975 people. As of the most recent reporting year, 2,050 of London's rough sleepers were in the borough of Westminster, the most of any London borough. In terms of gender, the majority of rough sleepers in 2022/23 were male, with 8,172 men seen to be sleeping rough, compared with 1,642 women, and eleven non-binary people. Homelessness in the U.S. Homelessness is also an important social issue in several other countries. In the United States, for example, there were estimated to be approximately 582,562 people experiencing homelessness in 2022. This was a slight increase on the previous year, but a decrease when compared to 2007, when around 672,258 people were homeless. When looking at U.S. states, California had the highest homelessness rate, at 43.7 individuals per 10,000 population, followed by Vermont at 43.1

In 2023, the around 11.1 percent of the population was living below the national poverty line in the United States. Poverty in the United StatesAs shown in the statistic above, the poverty rate among all people living in the United States has shifted within the last 15 years. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines poverty as follows: “Absolute poverty measures poverty in relation to the amount of money necessary to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. The concept of absolute poverty is not concerned with broader quality of life issues or with the overall level of inequality in society.” The poverty rate in the United States varies widely across different ethnic groups. American Indians and Alaska Natives are the ethnic group with the most people living in poverty in 2022, with about 25 percent of the population earning an income below the poverty line. In comparison to that, only 8.6 percent of the White (non-Hispanic) population and the Asian population were living below the poverty line in 2022. Children are one of the most poverty endangered population groups in the U.S. between 1990 and 2022. Child poverty peaked in 1993 with 22.7 percent of children living in poverty in that year in the United States. Between 2000 and 2010, the child poverty rate in the United States was increasing every year; however,this rate was down to 15 percent in 2022. The number of people living in poverty in the U.S. varies from state to state. Compared to California, where about 4.44 million people were living in poverty in 2022, the state of Minnesota had about 429,000 people living in poverty.

The majority of the people found sleeping rough in London in 2022/23 were from the United Kingdom, at 4,265 people. People from Romania were the next most common nationality at 1,031 rough sleepers.