EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EST, FEBRUARY 12, 1999 (FRIDAY)
Public Information Office CB99-28
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e-mail: pio@census.gov
Small Area Estimates Branch
301-457-3242
Census Bureau Releases Updated Income and Poverty Estimates
for States and Counties
The Commerce Department's Census Bureau today released 1995 income
and poverty estimates for the nation's states and 3,143 counties. The
new figures could be used to allocate federal funds for programs such as
Head Start.
The data posted on the Internet consist of 1995 state- and county-level
estimates of median household income, the total number of poor persons,
poor children under 18 and poor children ages 5 to 17 related to the
person maintaining the household they live in and state-level estimates of
the number of poor children under 5.
A panel of the National Academy of Sciences on estimates of poverty for
small geographic areas recommended that the Department of Education use
Census Bureau poverty estimates to determine the distribution of funds for
programs to aid disadvantaged children under Title I. The Education
Department will use either these county-level estimates or recently
released school district-level poverty estimates.
The Census Bureau produced the state and county estimates by combining
results from its March 1996 Current Population Survey with aggregate data
from federal individual income tax returns, administrative records on food
stamp program participation and 1990 decennial census figures.
The estimates were financed by the Census Bureau and the Departments of
Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Labor, Education, and Health
and Human Services.
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The U.S. Census Bureau, pre-eminent collector and disseminator of timely,
relevant and quality data about the people and the economy of the United
States, conducts a population and housing census every 10 years, an
economic census every five years and more than 100 demographic and
economic surveys every year, all of them evolving from the first census in
1790.
