This report presents data on the income and poverty status of households, families, and persons in the United States for the calendar year 1994. These data were compiled from information collected in the March 1995 Current Population Survey (CPS) conducted by the Bureau of the Census. The survey consisted of approximately 60,000 households nationwide.
This report begins with a highlight section then follows with sections discussing household income; earnings of year-round, full-time workers; per capita income; income inequality; and State income estimates. Poverty data follows and are cross-classified by various demographic characteristics such as age, race, Hispanic origin, and family relationship, including poverty estimates for States. The report concludes with a section entitled Valuation of Noncash Benefits, which examines the effects of taxes, government transfers, and various noncash benefits on income and poverty estimates under 18 alternative (experimental) definitions of income.
The official income and poverty estimates are based solely on money income before taxes and do not include the value of noncash benefits such as food stamps, medicare, medicaid, public housing, and employer-provided fringe benefits. The Valuation of Noncash Benefits section of this report discusses the effect of taxes and noncash benefits on income and poverty. These data were also derived from information collected in the March 1995 CPS along with data from other sources including the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Health Care Financing Administration.
(The figures in parentheses denote 90-percent confidence intervals.)
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2 Changes in real income refer to comparisons after adjusting for inflation. The percentage changes in prices between earlier years and 1994 were computed by dividing the annual average Consumer Price Index (CPI-U-X1) for 1994 by the annual average for earlier years. See table A-1 in appendix A for the CPI-U-X1’s from 1947 to 1994.
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NOTE: During the period April 1994 through June 1995, the Bureau of the Census systematically introduced a new sample design for the Current Population Survey (CPS) based on the results of the 1990 Decennial Census. During this phase-in-period, CPS estimates were being made from two distinct sample designs, the old 1980 sample design and the new 1990 sample design. The March 1995 CPS consisted of 55 percent new (1990) sample and 45 percent old (1980) sample. Since overlap in the sample design does not permit the development of estimates for metropolitan/non-metropolitan categories that are comparable to either the 1980 or 1990 census definitions, estimates of these categories have been omitted from this report. Some CPS estimates are thought to be more affected by this mixed sample than others. For example, it is thought that racial and ethnic subgroup estimates are subject to greater error and variability. The causes of this variability are differences in coverage, errors in geographic recoding, and changes in CPS sample areas. The Census Bureau recommends that users exercise caution when analyzing data using these or related variables during this period.
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