U.S. Census Bureau

 Small Area Income & Poverty Estimates

 Model-based Estimates for States, Counties, & School Districts

Information about Data Inputs


The state and county models use selected variables based on survey and administrative sources including:
  1. 2005: Income and poverty estimates derived from the American Community Survey.
  2. 2004 and prior years: Income and poverty estimates derived from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) of the Current Population Survey (CPS) .
  3. Direct estimates of income and poverty from 1980, 1990, and 2000 decennial census data.
  4. Data summarized from federal individual income tax returns.
  5. Numbers of food stamp recipients.
  6. Information from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), in the form of personal income estimates.
  7. Supplemental Security Income recipients.
  8. Demographic intercensal estimates of the population of states and counties, by age and group quarters status. We further adjust these to provide crude estimates of denominators for state and county poverty rates.


Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Data Integration Division, Small Area Estimates Branch
For assistance, please contact the Demographic Call Center Staff at 301-763-2422 or 1-866-758-1060 (toll free) or visit ask.census.gov for further information.