Sharp decline in poverty in U.S. despite census report

Contrary to numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Sept. 12, researchers at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the University of Notre Dame find that poverty has fallen sharply in the U.S. in recent decades. The U.S. Census Bureau's annual income-based poverty report provides data that inform a range of policies and issues affecting Americans from taxes to immigration to trade policy. This year's report estimates poverty in the U.S. to be 12.7 percent for 2016, which is very close to the rate in 1980, suggesting little progress or change in the fight against poverty. However, the official poverty measure is flawed, according to Bruce Meyer, the McCormick Foundation Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and James Sullivan, the Rev. Thomas J. McDonagh, C.S.C. Associate Professor of Economics at Notre Dame.