FlyingSquirlez

FlyingSquirlez OP t1_jdxqxhi wrote

Reply to comment by J_McJesky in [OC] Percentage of People in Poverty by State Using 3-Year Average: 2019, 2020, and 2021 (Supplemental Poverty Measure) by FlyingSquirlez

The data comes from the Current Population Survey, which is sponsored jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. This is a household survey, so it only samples those with an address. This is a potential shortcoming of the survey, as states like Hawaii, New York, and California with homelessness rates of ~0.3% to ~0.5% may in fact get undercounted.

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FlyingSquirlez OP t1_jdx5i3g wrote

Reply to comment by Old_Captain_9131 in [OC] Percentage of People in Poverty by State Using 3-Year Average: 2019, 2020, and 2021 (Supplemental Poverty Measure) by FlyingSquirlez

I did some quick data analysis because your comment made me curious, and it looks like there are only very weak correlations (R^2 < 0.2) between state GDP or average income and SPM values with low slope trendlines. I can see where the idea comes from, though, with many of the richest states also having high SPM. That said, there are notable exceptions (Illinois, Washington, Massachusetts, etc.) to this, and you can see many of the poorest states also have high SPM values. All in all, it's a wash.

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FlyingSquirlez OP t1_jdvxyqi wrote

Reply to [OC] Percentage of People in Poverty by State Using 3-Year Average: 2019, 2020, and 2021 (Supplemental Poverty Measure) by FlyingSquirlez

The SPM, first released in 2011 and produced with support from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), extends the official poverty measure by taking account of many government programs that are designed to assist low-income families but are not included in the official poverty measure. The SPM also includes federal and state taxes and work and medical expenses. In addition, the SPM accounts for geographic variation in poverty thresholds, while the official poverty measure does not.

Census website that has the report data, including useful statistics such as official poverty measure by state, margins of error, and further information on how poverty data is collected in the census: https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2022/demo/p60-277.html

The map was created using MapChart.

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