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Written By: Michael D. King and Melissa Kollar, Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division
On Sept. 9, 2025, the U.S. Census Bureau will release a new report comparing estimates of median income and earnings between 2023 and 2024 and historical income and earnings dating back to 1967. The report, Income in the United States: 2024, is based on information collected in the 2025 and earlier Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplements (CPS ASEC) conducted by the Census Bureau.
To account for changes in the cost of living, the Census Bureau adjusts all prior year income and earnings estimates for inflation using price indices produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). There are numerous price indices available to the Census Bureau to use for this adjustment, but no single price index is available for all years for which income estimates are available.
The Census Bureau currently uses the Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (C-CPI-U) to inflation adjust income estimates from 2000 onward. The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers Retroactive Series (R-CPI-U-RS), the CPI-U-X1 series (an experimental series that preceded the R-CPI-U-RS), and the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) are used for years prior to 2000.
Written by: John Creamer, Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division
There has been continued debate about the best way to measure poverty in the United States since the first official U.S. poverty statistics were published in the mid-1960s. The U.S. Census Bureau releases two poverty measures each September. The first, called the official poverty measure, is based on cash resources. The second, the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), includes both cash and noncash benefits and subtracts necessary expenses (such as taxes and medical expenses).
The official poverty measure has remained mostly unchanged since it was introduced in the mid-1960s. In contrast, the SPM was designed to improve as new data and methods become available.Â
In 2010, an interagency technical working group (ITWG) asked the Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to develop a new measure designed to improve our understanding of the economic well-being of American families and enhance our ability to measure the effect of federal policies on those living in poverty. The result was the SPM, which draws on the recommendations of a 1995 National Academy of Sciences report and research conducted over the following decades.
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