by Michael Pakko | Sep 12, 2012
This morning, the Census Bureau released new statistics on Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2011. The headline of the report was that the official U.S. poverty rate was 15.0% in 2011, little changed from the previous year. The...
by Michael Pakko | Sep 14, 2011
U.S. incomes decline and poverty rises – but Arkansas fares better than most other states Yesterday’s report from the Census Bureau showed that real household median income in the U.S. declined by 2.3% in 2010, and the share of the population below the...
by Michael Pakko | Mar 3, 2010
The Commerce Department yesterday outlined plans for a new methodology for measuring the poverty rate [“Census Bureau to Develop Supplemental Poverty Measure”]. The new measure will not replace the existing poverty-rate calculation, but serve as a...
by Michael Pakko | Sep 16, 2009
When the latest data on state-level poverty rates was released last week (September 10), I was asked to comment for a story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. I pointed out that poverty rates are not adjusted for differences in the cost of living. My point was the...