Philadelphia finally sheds the title of poorest big city. Why aren’t we celebrating?

Lifting 100,000 residents out of poverty should be lauded as a monumental achievement, not met with hand-wringing over what remains to be done.

by Sylvie Gallier Howard, For The Inquirer

Published Oct. 9, 2025

Philadelphia has finally done the seemingly impossible: shed the title of poorest big city in America. The most recent U.S. Census puts our poverty rate below 20% (the lowest in a generation), taking us out of the No. 1 spot and leaving Houston as our unwanted successor to the title.

But since the news broke, I’ve been struck by the silence. Instead of headlines heralding this milestone or celebrations from the many organizations that have worked toward this goal, the moment has passed largely unmarked.

Isn’t it healthy — and, frankly, appropriate — to celebrate progress? Think about it: When someone fighting cancer hears that their tumor has shrunk, they celebrate even as they steel themselves for the next round of treatment. When someone on a long weight-loss journey drops a few pounds, the celebration isn’t about being “done,” it’s about the encouragement to keep going.

That’s exactly how we should be treating Philadelphia’s poverty rate. This should not be about hand-wringing over ongoing complacency. It should be about recognizing real progress in a long, grueling battle. We should be shouting from the rooftops that the poverty rate has dropped from a high of over 28% to under 20%. That shift represents a reduction from 400,000 Philadelphians living in poverty to a figure closer to 300,000. That’s approximately 100,000 fewer Philadelphians with better prospects today than a decade ago. Something is working.

When I mentioned this to a friend, she quipped, “Don’t you think this is just Negadelphia?” She was right. We Philadelphians have a habit of focusing on our shortcomings and shrugging off our successes. But if there were ever a time to resist that instinct, it’s now.

I’ve spent more than two decades working in the field of community and economic development, focused on reducing poverty. I remember vividly when the rate first crept above 28% in 2011, a jarring figure that became my personal rallying cry.

At the nonprofit I led in the early 2000s, we tried to chip away at the cycle by growing Hispanic small businesses in Philadelphia.

Later, while serving at the Philadelphia Department of Commerce, I continued to focus on inclusive economic growth and became part of interdepartmental efforts to attack poverty from every angle — violence prevention, guaranteed income, housing support, tax credits, workforce training, and public education. I realized my work was just a piece of a larger puzzle in reducing poverty.

The barriers of poverty are relentless: shootings, housing insecurity, chronic illness — life circumstances that could derail progress overnight. And yet, over the past 14 years, 100,000 or so Philadelphians have moved out of this cycle. That’s huge!

When COVID-19 hit, and I was serving as commerce director, the data laid bare how fragile and unequal economic progress and mobility can be. After several years of unprecedented job growth in Philadelphia, the pandemic slammed Black and brown businesses and workers hardest. Even in the years when Philadelphia’s job growth outpaced the nation’s, that growth had bypassed entire communities.

My takeaway was sobering but clear: Job creation alone isn’t enough. Economic development must be intentional, targeted, and inclusive — and paired with broader interventions that dismantle persistent barriers.

That’s why today’s poverty news feels so monumental. We finally have proof that intentional efforts, like the many the public, nonprofit, and private sectors have made, matter. We finally see movement in a statistic that has haunted this city for decades.

I recognize that this progress isn’t solely the result of many years of local, painstaking work to lift Philadelphians out of poverty. Broader economic forces have surely played a role. But that’s exactly why this extraordinary shift should prompt us to double down on learning how and why this effort worked. If we can’t yet say with certainty how we achieved it, then we owe it to ourselves to invest in identifying which tools and strategies truly moved the needle and can keep building on them.

Yes, let’s celebrate this milestone. Let’s take stock of what got us here. Let’s identify what worked, double down on those strategies, and — most importantly — move faster, smarter, and with more focus.

I know that part of our persisting discouragement comes with Raj Chetty’s recent research placing Philadelphia dead last in economic mobility. But poverty and mobility are inextricably linked. Lower poverty rates are the first necessary step toward upward mobility.

So, Philadelphia, let’s mark this achievement. Let’s celebrate the tens of thousands of people whose lives are better today. Then, armed with data, evidence, and a renewed sense of momentum, let’s roll up our sleeves and keep pushing. Because recognizing progress isn’t weakness — it’s fuel for the fight ahead.

Sylvie Gallier Howard is the founder and CEO of Equitable Cities Collaborative.