The official poverty measure was developed in the 1960s in conjunction with President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty. Each September the US census Bureau releases an update of the national poverty rate for the prior year. Since the 1960s, the official poverty measure has been used to define poverty by comparing pretax income to a threshold that is adjusted for family size (ucdavis.edu, 2022). Poverty has affected majority of the people in the US.
Data from the Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic Supplement provide the basis of today’s official measurement. Homeless people are not included in the poverty statistics because the survey is only mailed to homes in the United States. Additionally, jailed adults and military members who do not share a residence with at least one adult civilian are not included in the sample (ucdavis.edu, 2022). While official and supplemental measurements of poverty shift from year to year, incomes linked to the Federal Poverty Level also do so (FPL).
Estimates of the amount of income required to meet necessities serve as the foundation for both the official and supplemental poverty measurements. People are categorized as being in poverty if they reside in households with earnings below specified amounts the official measure of poverty serves as a guide for government initiatives to combat poverty. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ poverty rules, which determine eligibility for government programs, are based on the official measure thresholds (ucdavis.edu, 2022). By integrating financial income from all sectors, incorporating government programs, and an approximation of real household expenses, the supplemental poverty measure offers a more nuanced statistical understanding of poverty. The thresholds for this metric provide useful information, but they do not determine who is eligible for government programs based on income.
The U.S. Census Bureau uses poverty criteria, which are dollar numbers, exclusively as a statistical benchmark to assess the financial situation of a household. They are released each September and serve as the foundation for calculating the country’s poverty rate. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services establishes poverty rules that determine a person’s eligibility for federal safety net programs (ucdavis.edu, 2022). The standards, which are updated annually in January, are a condensed version of the poverty levels used by the Census Bureau.
Reference
ucdavis.edu. (2022). What is poverty? Definition and measurement. ucdavis.edu.