The San Antonio-New Braunfels metropolitan area posted the sharpest reduction in poverty rates among the nation’s 25 largest urban areas, U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday showed.

Poverty rates fell or remained flat in all of those major U.S. cities. But the San Antonio-New Braunfels area stood out because its share of impoverished residents showed the steepest decline, falling from 16.7 percent in 2014 to 14.6 percent last year.

The result — nearly 39,000 fewer people living in poverty.

The metro area, home to nearly 2.4 million people, also saw a boost in pay. Median household income jumped 4.4 percent last year, rising to $55,083.

Across Texas as a whole, the poverty rate and median income also improved. But the state’s childhood poverty rate remains significant. Racial and ethnic gaps persist among the impoverished.

Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter said he was a bit surprised by San Antonio’s strong showing because of the downsizing that’s occurred in the drilling and fracking industry since the price of oil plummeted. Those financial woes were expected to take a bigger toll on the city.

“The economy within San Antonio is kind of just percolating along in a fairly positive way,” said Potter, a professor who directs the Institute for Demographic and Socioeconomic Research at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Some observers had expected lower oil prices to drain the state’s economy and slow job growth, said Vance Ginn, economist at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative policy group in Austin.

“We certainly had slower job growth throughout 2015. But … the economy’s still continuing to expand,” Ginn said.

Like many states, Texas saw a boost in pay last year. Its median household income rose to $55,653 — up 4.8 percent from $53,105 in 2014.

Poverty also declined across the state. Last year 15.9 percent of Texans were living below the poverty line — a marked improvement from 17.2 percent in 2014.

The census’ poverty threshold for a family of four, including two children, was $24,036 last year. For a person living alone, it was $12,082.

The positive trends emerged Thursday as the U.S. Census Bureau released one-year estimates from its 2015 American Community Survey, which analyzes 3.5 million households nationwide for demographic, social, economic and housing trends.

That survey is conducted in every county across the United States and provides snapshots of communities with 65,000 residents or more.

The improvements seen in Texas and its major urban areas aren’t isolated events. Poverty rates are falling or remaining stagnant across most of the country as Americans slowly recover from a long-running recession that has strained their pocketbooks.

Texas’ poverty rate now has returned to about where it was in 2008 before the recession struck, said Garrett Groves, economic opportunity program director at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a policy group in Austin that advocates for Texans earning low and moderate incomes.

There are several areas where the state still needs to improve.

One of those is the stark variation in poverty rates seen among Texans of different races and ethnicities.

Last year 22.8 percent of the state’s Hispanic residents were found to be living in poverty, while 21.4 percent of the state’s African-American residents were living in poverty.

“Those gaps are persistent,” Groves said. “And in some cases, depending on the locality, they’re growing. They’re getting worse.”

Nearly a quarter of the state’s children — 23 percent — remain below the poverty level, the data released Thursday show. And there, the racial and ethnic disparities become even more apparent.

Poverty rates for Hispanic children and African-American children in Texas are about three times higher than those for Anglo children and Asian children, Groves said.

“It’s especially concerning given that 7 million children live in Texas today,” he said.

“It really speaks to the future of our state. Without children of color in particular, Texas would be facing a demographic crisis. We’d be faced with a shrinking and aging population with few working-age adults in the workforce.”

Texas also shows a strong disparity in incomes.

A census index measuring the proportional distribution of income among households placed Texas in the upper quartile of states for income inequality, Potter said.

“Essentially, that’s an indication that we have a fair number of people that are earning a pretty good wage and some people that are really wealthy — and then a lot of people that are poor,” Potter said.

Jesse De La Cruz, 56, who lives alone on San Antonio’s West Side, is one of those Texans who’s continuing to struggle despite the improvements in Texas’ economy.

While renewing his paperwork at the San Antonio Food Bank on Thursday, he seemed unimpressed by the dropping poverty rates for Texas and San Antonio.

“You can’t believe the numbers … I don’t think it’s gotten better,” said De La Cruz, who had to abandon construction work due to health problems and now is looking for other work. He receives food stamps and sometimes visits the food bank for help.

“I’m not used to living like this. I always used to work and had money in my pocket,” he said.

The number of households in the San Antonio and New Braunfels area receiving public assistance income or food stamps has declined in recent years, census data show. Last year, 12.9 percent of households received some kind of assistance, down from 13.4 percent in 2014 and 15 percent in 2013.

While the metro area’s unemployment rate has gone down in recent years, the workforce participation rate also has declined. Last year, unemployment in the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro area was 5.8 percent — down significantly from 8.7 percent in 2010. But the workforce participation rate also dipped to its lowest level in the past five years.

In the Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington metropolitan area, the percentage of residents living in poverty dropped by 1.4 percentage points last year. The area encompassing Houston, The Woodlands and Sugar Land saw a decline of 0.7 percentage points.

Poverty continues to be high in the Rio Grande Valley compared to other areas of Texas. In the area encompassing McAllen, Edinburg and Mission, 31.5 percent of residents were living below the poverty level last year. In the Laredo metropolitan area, 31.8 percent of residents were below the poverty level.

A significant number of Rio Grande Valley residents also lacked health insurance. Last year, 31 percent of residents in the McAllen, Edinburg and Mission area had no health coverage. In the Laredo metropolitan area, 26.2 percent of residents were uninsured.

In the San Antonio-New Braunfels area, 14.5 percent of residents were found to have no health insurance last year. That compares to the Houston area, where 17.3 percent of residents lacked health coverage, and to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where 16.3 percent of people were uninsured.

pohare@express-news.net

This article was updated to correct the racial and ethnic characteristics of Texans living in poverty last year.