Description

SPMPOVANC12 indicates a family's poverty status using a Supplemental Poverty Measurement (SPM) threshold anchored to a 2012 standard of living (after adjusting for inflation). It is a dichotomous variable indicating whether a family's available resources fall above or below the 2012 Anchored SPM Threshold (SPMTHRESHANC12). It is comparable to the unanchored SPMPOV, which reflects a standard of living more contemporary with the year in which poverty is being measured.

This is one of three anchored variables created by the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University as part of their Historical SPM project. SPMTHRESHANC12 records a family's SPM poverty threshold anchored to 2012, and SPMGEOADJANC12 provides a geographic adjustment factor that users can apply to SPMTHRESHANC12 to produce a geographically unadjusted poverty threshold.

For user guidance on the Historical SPM and the calculation of SPMPOVANC12, please refer to the Historical SPM user note.

Comparability

SPMPOVANC12 is largely comparable across all years.

SPMPOVANC12 is created by CPSP from 1968-2009 (for calendar years 1967-2008). For 2010 (calendar year 2009) forward, this variable is generated by IPUMS using the same methodology.

While the methods used to calculate the Historical SPM variables are the same for the entire series, some variables are entirely imputed or alternate data sources are used because of unevenness in data ability over time. Please see the user note linked from the description tab for further information on the creation of the Historical SPM variables.

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Unharmonized Variables