Has anyone created a CENSUS or ACS CUTOFF variable for 100% poverty for fams of different compositions?

1

We are wanting to get detailed ratios of total family income to poverty above 500% of poverty for families with relatd children versus other children.

(The available POVERTY variable provides detailed ratios below 500%, but just lumps all values above 500% of poverty.) We need to compare total family income to the appropriate year’s poverty thresholds.

Ultimately we will be doing the analysis for both ACS 2009-2011 and for Census 2000 to see if the middle class is thinning out in our City, which we think is probably the case.

I saw that there is a CUTOFF variable in the CPS IPUMS. I am wondering if IPUMS staff could send us the similar CUTOFF specs adapted to ACS and Census IPUMS data.

Thank you in advance for your help!

2

The CUTOFF variable from IPUMS-CPS is generated by the U.S. Census Bureau and appears in the PUMS files under the name FPOVCUT. There are currently no plans to adapt them to the IPUMS-USA samples. I would recommend using the Census Bureau’s pages on Poverty, which include threshold figures that can be adapted to specific years using the Consumer Price Index adjustment factors, to generate the figures you are looking for.