Poverty Measurement

The Census Bureau tracks poverty in the United States using two different approaches: the official poverty measure and the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). As the safety net changed over time, it became clear that the official poverty measure has a number of limitations in capturing the effect of public policy on the poverty rate: it does not capture the effect of near-cash transfers (e.g., food or housing assistance), taxes (e.g., refundable tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit), necessary expenses (out-of-pocket medical costs, child care, commuting, and more), or regional differences in cost of living. Using the SPM, we developed a historical SPM poverty measure to look back at the impact of policy on poverty since 1967 and provide a direct comparison to the official measure. We also developed a monthly SPM poverty measure to capture the impact of fast-moving economic and policy changes in close to real-time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lastly, our research continues to explore potential future advances in poverty measurement that will help better capture levels and trends in poverty as well as the role that policy can play in reducing the poverty rate.  

We created a unique historical data set that extends the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) back to 1967, the year in which the official poverty measure began. Our historical SPM analysis reveals the impact of public policy on the poverty rate over time and our historical SPM data is available for public use.

We created a unique monthly poverty measure using the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) to provide close to real-time estimates of the economic well-being of U.S. households and how changes in policy impact family income and poverty status.

Our research continues to explore potential future advances in poverty measurement that will help better capture levels and trends in poverty as well as the role that policy can play in reducing the poverty rate.