Children in poverty according to the supplemental poverty measure in United States

Poverty has profound negative impacts on children’s health and well-being, particularly when they experience deep and persistent poverty. The effects of eco­nom­ic hard­ship can dis­rupt children’s cog­ni­tive devel­op­ment, phys­i­cal and men­tal health, edu­ca­tion­al suc­cess and oth­er lifelong out­comes.

While the official poverty measure is based on pre­tax cash income, the Sup­ple­men­tal Pover­ty Mea­sure (SPM) accounts for a broad­er range of fam­i­ly resources, such as non­cash ben­e­fits (e.g., food and hous­ing assistance) and tax cred­its. It also fac­tors in nec­es­sary house­hold expens­es and region­al vari­a­tion in cost of liv­ing. By account­ing for safe­ty net ben­e­fits, the SPM pro­vides an important oppor­tu­ni­ty to gauge the effec­tive­ness of gov­ern­ment anti-poverty inter­ven­tions.

Poverty has profound negative impacts on children’s health and well-being, particularly when they experience deep and persistent poverty. The effects of eco­nom­ic hard­ship can dis­rupt children’s cog­ni­tive devel­op­ment, phys­i­cal and men­tal health, edu­ca­tion­al suc­cess and oth­er lifelong out­comes.

While the official poverty measure is based on pre­tax cash income, the Sup­ple­men­tal Pover­ty Mea­sure (SPM) accounts for a broad­er range of fam­i­ly resources, such as non­cash ben­e­fits (e.g., food and hous­ing assistance) and tax cred­its. It also fac­tors in nec­es­sary house­hold expens­es and region­al vari­a­tion in cost of liv­ing. By account­ing for safe­ty net ben­e­fits, the SPM pro­vides an important oppor­tu­ni­ty to gauge the effec­tive­ness of gov­ern­ment anti-poverty inter­ven­tions.