Measuring Poverty: Advances to the Supplemental Poverty Measure

Measuring poverty is a complex undertaking. It requires extensive research, expert judgment of how to define resources and needs, and a data infrastructure that enables accurate measurement. In this article, we briefly summarize the evolution of poverty measurement in the U.S. and discuss the recommended changes to the Supplemental Poverty Measure that were recently proposed by an expert panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). We emphasize how the costs of medical care, child care, and housing can be better accounted for in the measurement of poverty, and the need to incorporate administrative data records with survey data.