Poverty in the 50 States: Long Term Trends in Poverty and the Role of Social Policies

State by State Analyses
Written By Sonia Huq

This chartbook presents the first estimates of state-level trends in poverty using a historical version of the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). The SPM provides a more accurate measure of poverty than the Official Poverty Measure (OPM), which has been in use since the 1960s. 

The chartbook includes a two-page fact sheet for each state that documents historical trends in poverty overall, as well as for children, working-aged adults, and the elderly. Each fact sheet also displays the effect of taxes and transfers on the poverty rate for these groups.

The state-level poverty estimates were calculated using the CPSP's historical SPM data set which is publicly available on our site.

Sonia Huq
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Young Child Poverty in the United States: Analyzing Trends in Poverty and the Role of Anti-poverty Programs