Official Poverty Statistics from the Current Population Survey
The official poverty statistics, which have been in use since the
1960s, calculate poverty status by comparing a family’s or
an individual’s cash income to their poverty threshold.
If a family’s total income is less than the family’s threshold,
then that family and every individual in it is considered in
poverty.
The Census Bureau produces annual reports providing numbers and
rates of people in poverty with select breakdown by demographic
and socio-economic characteristics.
Frequency and Timespan: Annual data available from 1959 to the
present
Geographic Level of Coverage: National with some regional
breakdowns
Source:
DeNavas-Walt, Carmen and Bernadette D. Proctor, Income and
Poverty in the United States: 2014 U.S. Census Bureau. Current
Population Reports P60-252, U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, DC, 2015 (PDF)
Accessed 9/16/2014
Each year, the U.S. Census Bureau counts people in poverty with
two measures. Both the official and supplemental poverty measures
are based on estimates of the level of income needed to cover
basic needs. Those who live in households with earnings below
those incomes are considered to be in poverty.
In 2011, the Census Bureau issued a paper that laid groundwork
for developing a new Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) for the
United States.
This paper illustrate differences between the official
measure of poverty and a poverty measure that takes account of
in-kind benefits received by families and nondiscretionary
expenses that they must pay.
