Comparing Supplemental Poverty Measure Thresholds and Family Budgets: Rethinking Income to Poverty Ratios

Trudi Renwick, U.S. Census Bureau
Kathleen S. Short, U.S. Census Bureau

When the Census Bureau published estimates of the Supplemental Poverty Measure in November 2011, some analysts characterized the results as showing a surge in the number of “low income” families. While about 19 percent of people had incomes between 100 and 200 percent of the official thresholds, 31.8 percent of people had SPM resources between 100 and 200 percent of the SPM thresholds. Over the last decade many analysts have been using 200 percent of the official poverty line as a measure of low income or income inadequacy based, in part, on comparisons of the official poverty thresholds with standard budgets (“basic needs budgets,” “family budgets,” or the Self-Sufficiency Standard). The question that this working paper will explore is how to characterize various percentages of the Supplemental Poverty Measure threshold relative to standard budgets and to the official poverty thresholds.