Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage ... - Census Bureau

and 2) other income and poverty benefits, available at . by 2 million.
Taxes on Income and Poverty series
(R&D). The NAS-based measures use
both alternative poverty thresholds
and an expanded income definition.
The R&D estimates use the official
thresholds but examine the impact of
adding or subtracting specific compo-
nents from an enhanced definition of
income.
Both microdata files are currently
available for 2008. Data for 2009 will
be released before the end of the year.
CPS Table Creator II
CPS Table Creator II is a Web-based
tool designed to help researchers
explore alternative income and
poverty measures. The tool is avail-
• In 2008, the number of elderly
people in poverty would be higher
by 13 million people if Social
Security payments were excluded
from money income, more than
quadrupling the number of elderly
people in poverty.
Researchers can also estimate poverty
The Census Bureau will release estimates
for these alternative measures
for 2009 at a later date. Estimates for
2008 for the R&D series can be found
able from a link on the Census
Bureau’s poverty Web site
.
rates using alternative poverty thresholds.
Many other countries use relative
poverty measures with thresholds that
are based on a percentage of median
or mean income. 49 at
and 2008 estimates for the NAS-based
measures can be found at
.
Table Creator II allows researchers to
produce poverty and income esti-
mates using their own combinations
of threshold and resource definitions
and to see the incremental impact of
the addition or subtraction of a single
resource element. For example:
Table Creator II
allows researchers to estimate poverty
rates using a relative poverty thresh-
old calculated as any percentage of
mean or median equivalence-adjusted
income. For example, using poverty
thresholds based on 50 percent of
The Census Bureau also makes median income rather than the official
available a research
file that provides • If the cash value of Supplemental poverty thresholds would increase the
microdata with variables used to Nutrition Assistance Program overall poverty rate in 2008 from 13.2
construct the NAS-based alternative (SNAP) benefits were added to the percent to 21.9 percent.
measures, available at
money income of families, this
, and an 2.2 million people above the official 49 For example, the Organization for Economic
expanded version of the CPS ASEC
public-use file that includes estimates
of the value of taxes and noncash
poverty line in 2008.
• Taking into account the value of
the federal Earned Income Tax
Co-operation and Development (OECD) uses
a poverty threshold of 50 percent of median
income. The European Union defines poverty
as an income below 60 percent of the national
median of equalized disposable income after
Credit would reduce the number of social transfers.
U.S. Census Bureau Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009 21