| Sumario: | In 2011, the Census Bureau released its first report on the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). The SPM addresses many criticisms of the official poverty measure, and its intent is to provide an improved statistical picture of poverty. This article examines the extent of poverty identified by the two measures. First, we look at how the SPM and official-measure poverty estimates differ for various demographic and socioeconomic groups. One finding is that the SPM poverty rate is lower than the official poverty rate for each age subgroup of children (0-5, 6-11, and 12-17) by 5.2, 5.3, and 2.2 percentage points, respectively. Then, we look at why the SPM poverty rates for children are lower than the official poverty rates. An important factor here is the difference in treatment of the earned income tax credit and other refundable tax credits.
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