All Our Kin? Measuring Poverty Using Alternative Family Configurations

• Activity Number: 138 - Upcoming Changes to the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Monday, July 31, 2017 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
• Author(s): Trudi Jane Renwick* and Laryssa Mykyta and Ashley Edwards
• Companies: U.S. Census Bureau and University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley and U.S. Census Bureau
• Keywords: poverty ; cohabitation ; family formation ; same-sex marriage

Abstract

While the last four decades have witnessed both an increase in the range of living arrangements and in family complexity, the way the Census Bureau configures families has not changed. Since the Census Bureau measures poverty at the family level, comparing total family pre-tax money income to an income threshold based on family size and composition, how we configure families has important implications for poverty measurement. This presentation will discuss the impact on poverty rates of two related issues: (1) the treatment of same-sex married couples and (2) the assignment of children to families with their parents. Since the Census Bureau assigns families based on the relation of each household member to the householder, there are two instances in which parents and their children are not included in the same family. When two unmarried parents live with their shared child, the householder and the child are classified as a the primary family and the unmarried partner of the householder is classified as an unrelated individual. Adults over 17 who are not related to the householder are defined as "unrelated individuals," even if their parent is present in the household.