America's poverty rate soared last year. Children were among the worst hit.

Millions of American families fell into poverty last year as the well of government-funded pandemic aid dried up and incomes shrank, according to new data from the U.S. Census. Children were particularly hard-hit, with the poverty rate for kids doubling compared with 2021. 

The surge in poverty is "stunning," Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said in a statement. Parrott pointed to the end of the expanded federal Child Tax Credit in 2022 as a cause of the sharp increase in child poverty and called for lawmakers to reinstate the benefit. 

The rise in poverty amounts to an increase of 15.3 million people around the U.S. living in poverty, according to the left-leaning think tank.