There were 15,000 more people in Philadelphia in 2018, according to the Census Bureau, bringing the city's population to 1.584 million. There was a 1.3 percent decline in poverty, though the rate remains stubbornly high at 24.5 percent. And there was a $6,000 increase in the median wage.
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Mayor Kenney's deputy chief of staff Maari Porter says these are signs the administration's strategies are working.
"It gives us hope and confidence that we are making progress, that we're moving in the right direction, but there's no denying that with close to a quarter of Philadelphians still in poverty, it's too many and, frankly, we have to move faster," Porter said.
Philadelphia remains the poorest of the ten largest cities. For the region, which includes the suburbs and parts of New Jersey and Delaware, the poverty rate is 12 percent, which is below the national average.