D’Vera Cohn

Money-sharing by cohabiting couples is the topic of this article, which focuses on the Census Bureau's new alternative measure of poverty. Cohabiting couples are much less likely to be considered poor under the alternative measure than the official measure of poverty'; the major reason is that the alternative measure assumes such couples share expenses, while the official measure assumes they are separate economic units.

The Census Bureau has just published the results from its new alternative measure of poverty, called the Supplemental Poverty Measure, and they differ notably from the poverty rates shown by the official measure that’s been used since the 1960s. A new report by the Pew Hispanic Center compares results under both measures for key demographic groups.

The poverty rate for Hispanics was 28.2% in 2010, higher than it was for blacks, non-Hispanic whites or Asians, and higher than the official poverty rate for Hispanics, 26.7%, reported by the Census Bureau.

A new Pew Research Center report explores the demographics and economics of multi-generational households. It concludes that moving to a multi-generational household appears to lift Americans out of poverty, and this is especially true for groups most affected by the recession. Household incomes also are higher for some groups in multi-generational households.

A new report from the Pew Hispanic Center explores and analyzes the poverty rate for Hispanic children. Latino children now outnumber white children in poverty for the first time, according to census data cited in the report.

The Census Bureau today released its first estimates of the number of same-sex married couples in the U.S., as well as alternatives counts to the published data for same-sex unmarried couples that try to account for data-processing issues.

The Census Bureau today released data from the 2010 American Community Survey that expands on the basic demographics in the 2010 Census. Links to the data and special reports are included in this posting.

The 2011 Canada Census exceeded its targets for online response, and the overall response rate in 2011 was higher than it had been in 2006, according to a news account. The success of the online response campaign in Canada will be studied by U.S. Census Bureau officials, who intend to offer an online option in the 2020 Census.

Pew Research Center reports can add context to the Census Bureau's release of 2010 data on U.S. income, poverty and health insurance coverage. These Pew Research Center reports, linked to in this article, have documented the impact of the Great Recession and shaky recovery on Americans’ wealth, work lives, personal finances and emotional well-being.

Census data can be used to measure change since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, as illustrated by a Wall Street Journal story about lower Manhattan. The Census Bureau itself has published a case study of how one group used census data to argue successfully for an expanded relief-distribution zone in New York's Chinatown.