LatinaLista — The Pew Hispanic Center weighs in on the US Census’ recent release of the more detailed Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) in the new report Hispanic Poverty Rate Highest In New Supplemental Census Measure.
What was made clear in the Pew report is that it doesn’t make much of a difference whether the poverty rate among Latinos is viewed using SPM data or the regular data complied by the US Census Bureau, Latinos still comprise too large a number of the impoverished.
…no matter which measure is used, Hispanics make up nearly three-in-ten of the nation’s poor–28.6% under the official poverty measure and 28.7% under the SPM.
A large percentage of the Latino poor are immigrants:
The share of people born in the U.S. who are poor did not change significantly using the SPM in 2010, compared with the official measure, but the poverty rate for immigrants was higher — 25.5% versus 20.0%.
For immigrants who are not U.S. citizens, the SPM poverty rate was 32.4% in 2010, while the official poverty rate was 26.7%. For naturalized citizens, the SPM poverty rate was 16.8% in 2010, compared with the official poverty rate of 11.4%.
As a result of using SPM data, the national poverty rate stands at 49.1 million compared to 46.6 million with the official measure.
With Latino immigrants being lower skilled in a changing labor force, it’s a sad statistic that will probably only get worse before it can get better.
