Poverty status is included in several of the 2020 CPS ASEC migration tables – the Table 1 series, Table 10, Table 14 series, Table 15, and Table 17 series. As of 2020, these tables include clarification about the poverty universe within the category heading text. Specifically, that the poverty universe includes persons who are at least 15 years of age or who live with at least one relative.

Prior to 2020, the poverty recode variable (POVLL) used to create this portion of the migration tables coded persons not in the poverty universe as not in poverty. As of 2020, POVLL uses a separate code for out-of-universe. Following this update, the 2020 migration tables exclude persons out-of-universe on poverty from the estimates of migration by poverty status. The migration tables in 2019 and prior included those out-of-universe on poverty within the “below of poverty” category. Data users should note this poverty coding difference between 2020 and prior years, and use caution when comparing with or analyzing estimates for those in poverty for migration tables from 2019 and earlier.

Please refer to the CPS ASEC technical documentation for further details about poverty variables and the poverty universe: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/technical-documentation/complete.html