Poverty

Links to More Poverty Resources:

Social IMPACT Research Center at Heartland Alliance:

Social IMPACT provides articles and reports related to topics of interest to advocates, frontline workers, and policy makers.

On September 13, 2011 the U.S. Census Bureau released its report on Poverty in the United States. As always, Social IMPACT provided an overview and in-depth summary of the new data. 

National Poverty Center:

The University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy houses the National Poverty Center - a resource for timely data, policy briefs, and more related to poverty.  Visit their Poverty Facts page to learn more about measuring poverty, national rates, and how poverty differs across groups.

NPC releases policy-focused summaries that stem from key findings from their research, such as this recent report:

NPC on Poverty and Culture

Center for Economic and Policy Research:

CEPR analyzes and provides access to information related to social and economic issues. CEPR's Data Bytes posts timely analysis of governmental data releases on poverty, employment, housing, and more.

CEPR - Poverty Bytes

Economic Policy Institute:

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) focuses on the economic condition of low-income and middle-income Americans and their families. EPI's Datazone provides data and resources related to poverty. 

Check out the Basic Family Budget Calculator, which allows the user to calculate the cost of living for various family sizes by metropolitan region.

 Brookings Institute:

Brookings is a public policy research organization in Washington D.C. which often publishes article briefs related to poverty and many other topics.

Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law:

The Shriver Center puts out an annual Poverty Scorecard, which provides advocates ratings for every member of Congress based off of their voting record on important anti-poverty legislation over the course of the year.

Sources:

U.S. Census Bureau

Social IMPACT Research Center

Chicago Rehab Network

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)

Comments or Questions?

Please contact WIRE staff by phone or email with feedback or inquiries. 

Greg Shirbroun

Phone: 312-252-0436

Email: greg@cjc.net

The following is a listing of poverty figures for different geographic levels in the state of Illinois (state, county, city, community area, etc.), and additional tools for understanding poverty in Illinois.  The data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau, and was filtered by the Social IMPACT Research Center. 

Data Highlight:

The Illinois Commission on the Elimination of Poverty released its recommendations in 2010. Five policy solutions were highlighted in the report. Since the release, the Urban Institute has modeled what the impact of those solutions would be in terms of poverty reduction.  In late March 2012, the Social IMPACT Research Center provided an overview of the analysis. 

Illinois Poverty 

2010 Poverty Rate in Illinois: 13.8%

2009 Poverty Rate in Illinois: 13.3%

This means 1,713,711 Illinoisans were living at or below their poverty threshold in 2010.¹

For more in-depth analysis on Illinois Poverty, as well as Illinois community and Illinois county data check out the full reports from the Social IMPACT Research Center. 

Chicago Poverty

2010 Poverty Rate in Chicago: 22.5%

2009 Poverty Rate in Chicago: 21.6%

This means 596,975 Chicagoans were living at or below their poverty threshold in 2010.¹

For more in-depth analysis on Chicago Poverty, check out the full report from the Social IMPACT Research Center. 

Chicago Community Area Poverty

Provided here are five-year estimates (2005-2009) of poverty rates for the 77 community areas in Chicago (For example: Humboldt Park 34%).²

Also five-year estimates of individuals living in extreme poverty (50% of Federal Poverty Threshold or below) and five-year estimates of low-income individuals (those living at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Threshold) are available.

To obtain data for shorter timeframes (for example one-year estimates) visit the American Community Survey FactFinder. This is a resource for data related to many indicators for workforce development, including poverty rate.

1). To start searching select a data set.  One-year, three-year, and five-year estimates are available. 

2). Once a data set is selected click on the "Data Profiles" link. 

3). Select a geography.  For one-year estimates the most specific geographies available are PUMAs (or Public Use Microdata Areas).  Here is an explanation and listing of Chicago PUMAs provided by the Chicago Rehab Network. 

Measuring Poverty 

The above estimates of poverty are made by the U.S. Census Bureau.  They determine poverty status using thresholds, which are determined by estimating family needs, and how much those cost.  Annual income of the family is then compared to these thresholds.  The thresholds vary based on family size, number of children, and age of householder and are updated annually.  They do not vary geographically.³

A few examples of poverty thresholds for 2009 are as follows:

_{Click here for the full chart of poverty thresholds for 2009 from the U.S. Census Bureau.  Also, click here for access to poverty threshold charts from all years dating back to 1959.}

Poverty guidelines are more often used for determining financial eligibility for federal programs.  Though often confused with thresholds, they are slightly different measures.  They are issued each year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The poverty guidelines for 2010 are as follows (click for the full chart of poverty guidelines and more explanation): 

U.S. Census Bureau Data

The U.S. Census Bureau provides the American FactFinder, a resource for finding demographic, economic, social, housing and other pertinent information for over 7,000 different geographic areas nationwide. Information is available from the wide range of Census Bureau's datasets.

For more information about the FactFinder, as well as instructions for using it, read the WIRE's Guide to the FactFinder.

Footnotes

_{¹  Figures come from the American Community Surveyand are filtered by Social IMPACT Research Center.}

_{²The estimates are provided by the Social IMPACT Research Centerthrough their analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Surveydata.}

_{³From the U.S. Census Bureaureport Poverty: 2008 and 2009)}

Visit CJC's other pages dedicated to the following topics:

• Unemployment
• Self-Sufficiency Standard
• Labor Market Information

Also, do not forget to check out other highlighted topics in Featured Data.