Is poverty in the U.S. getting better or worse?
It depends on how you measure it, apparently.
“The U.S. has one of the highest rates of poverty among Western industrialized nations,” Mark Rank, a sociologist who researches poverty and economic inequality, told The Conversation. “I think the most interesting aspect of [the Census Bureau’s] report is the different directions the two measures of poverty went in 2023.
“On one hand, the official poverty measure declined to 11.1% in 2023 from 11.5% in 2022. At the same time, the supplemental poverty measure, an alternative way to measure poverty introduced in 2011, increased to 12.9% in 2023 from 12.4% a year earlier.
Many experts consider the official poverty measure to be “garbage,” calling the supplemental poverty measure a “far superior metric,” which gives a “clearer picture of day-to-day income.”
“The official poverty rate fell because overall household income rose modestly in 2023 – even after taking inflation into account – according to other census data. However, like many poverty experts, I believe that the supplemental poverty measure is a better indicator of what’s going on because it takes into account household expenses as well as tax credits and the effects of government programs on reducing poverty.
“It turns out that one key reason for the increase in the current supplemental poverty measure is that Social Security benefits and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – also known as SNAP or ‘food stamps’ – pulled fewer people out of poverty in 2023 than in 2022. The supplemental poverty measure also increased as the result of out-of-pocket medical expenses being higher in 2023 than in 2022.”
USA Today reports on the latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. Here’s the start of the story:
The number of Americans living in poverty has gone up, even as incomes rose last year, the U.S. Census Bureau announced Tuesday.
Measuring poverty can be tricky − but the main number social scientists have for years looked at to capture the true number of people struggling to meet their basic needs ticked up to 12.9% in 2023, compared to 12.4% in 2022, according to the Census Bureau.
More Americans are struggling to afford necessities like rent, child care and medical expenses. That caused the Supplemental Poverty Measure − used by social scientists − to rise, even as the number of Americans living below the more standard Official Poverty Measure fell for the first time since 2019, due to rising incomes.
“People are paying more in rent, people aren’t getting as much childcare support. Even though they’re earning more they’re not really getting ahead,” Timothy Smeeding, a leading expert on the poverty line, told USA TODAY.
The uptick in the national poverty rate announced Tuesday comes one year after the U.S. saw a larger spike in poverty, as many low-income Americans lost pandemic-era assistance, like extra food stamps. At this time last year, officials announced the share of Americans below the poverty threshold used by social scientists had risen from 7.8% to 12.4%.