Supplemental Measures of Material Well-Being: Expenditures, Consumption, and Poverty 1998 and 2001. Special Studies. Current Population Reports

摘要

This report, which is being issued as a companion piece to Poverty in the United States: 2002 (P60-222), describes some possible next steps in the Census Bureau's decades-long tradition of investigation into the measurement of poverty. The current official poverty measure, described in the text box, is based on an examination of the adequacy of an individual's or family's income relative to poverty thresholds. The Census Bureau also publishes two series of alternative poverty estimates. These are described more fully in Poverty in the United States: 2002. This report describes a third new avenue for research consumption-based measures using expenditures and other indicators of material well-being - that is intended to complement the official income-based measures and the two existing series of alternative poverty estimates to expand our understanding of the nature of poverty in the United States.