ACS Data Users Group

Hi All,

I am working on revising a manuscript where I used poverty level data from the 2017-2021 ACS 5-year PUMS data. I used the variable POVPIP for the income-to-poverty ratio.

I have been asked by the journal to provide the agency that determined the poverty level you are referencing and the year it determined it. Does anyone know what this is or how I can locate this information?

Best,

Tiffany

The poverty level is computed by the US Census Bureau following the Office of Management Statistical Directive #14 https://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/poverty/guidance/poverty-measures.html The POVPIP value in the PUMS data is determined based on the ACS variables.

See

American Community Survey
and
Puerto Rico Community
Survey
2022 Subject Definitions

https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/tech_docs/subject_definitions/2022_ACSSubjectDefinitions.pdf

for the details including the calculation

The calculation uses "total income" item on the acs questionnaire item #44 (reported for each person in the household). The total household income is the total income for all of the householder's family members.

The poverty thresholds vary by year. The 5 year PUMS data is a combination of the underlying 5 1 year PUMS files. For the 2017-2021 5 year file the 2017 records use the 2017 thresholds the 2018 records use the 2018 thresholds etc

https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2021/acs/acs_pums_handbook_2021_ch01.pdf

ACS questionnaire with the text of questions along with the instruction.

www2.census.gov/.../quest23.pdf

Also see

www.census.gov/.../poverty-measures.html

Best Dave Dorer