On Tuesday the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality and Public Policy Institute of California jointly released the California Poverty Measure, a report that estimates 22 percent of all Californians — and 25 percent of children in the Golden State — are living below the poverty line.
Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the new report is that by changing the method used for estimating poverty, the final projection of 8.1 million poor Californians is 35 percent higher than the previous estimate of 6 million.
“The index provides a more rigorous measure than the commonly used official poverty measure of the U.S. Census Bureau,” according to a Stanford press release.
The report — co-authored by Sarah Bohn, Caroline Danielson, Matt Levin, Marybeth Mattingly and Christopher Wimer — detailed, “The California Poverty Measure is part of a national effort to measure poverty in a more comprehensive way. It incorporates the changes in costs and standards of living since the official poverty measure was devised in the early 1960s — and accounts for geographic differences in the cost of living across the state. It also factors in tax credits and in-kind assistance that can augment family resources and subtracts medical, commuting and child care expenses.”
Last month the U.S. Census Bureau released statistics indicating 46.5 million Americans lived in poverty during 2012. “The figures from the Census Bureau … highlighted the lingering scars from the 2007-2009 recession and added fresh fuel to debates over government austerity and widening income inequality,” Reuters reported.
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