Supplemental Poverty Measure

The Supplemental Poverty Measure is the second of the two poverty rates the US Census Bureau publishes each year, produced with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It has been released annually since 2011, with estimates reaching back to 2009, and it grew out of the recommendations of a 1995 National Academy of Sciences panel on measuring poverty.

The official measure asks one question: is a family's cash income before tax below a national line that moves only with inflation? The supplemental measure widens both sides of that comparison. On the resources side it adds benefits paid in kind, such as food and housing assistance, and tax credits, takes off income and payroll taxes, and subtracts spending a family cannot avoid, such as work and medical expenses. On the needs side its lines are built from what households actually spend on food, clothing, shelter, utilities, telephone and internet, averaged over five years, and they vary with local housing costs.

It does not replace the official measure. The two answer different questions, so they can move apart: in 2025 the official rate fell to 10.2 percent while the supplemental rate stayed at 13.1 percent, not statistically different from the year before. Because it counts benefits and taxes, the supplemental measure is the one that can show how much a given programme lifts people above the line.