How We Measure Poverty Counts
Download the full data book (Jan. 2025; 80 pages; pdf)
Link to our blog
Find more data for New Mexico and the U.S. at the KIDS COUNT Data Center
Introductory Essay
Poverty is a complicated, multi-faceted problem that must be tackled from numerous sides with a variety of tools. It’s important that we address it because growing up in poverty presents many challenges to children and it puts up barriers that can keep our youngest New Mexicans from thriving and reaching their unique potential.
Since the multi-faceted issue of poverty must be addressed from multiple directions, it makes sense that it be measured in a way that takes all of those facets into account. But the most commonly used measurement of poverty provides us with only one dimension. The official poverty measure (OPM) is what the U.S. Census Bureau has been using to determine the share of the population living in poverty since the 1960s. The problem is, the OPM only considers a household’s income level to determine their poverty status. We know that several other factors – the cost of living, the need for and cost of child care and health care, and even the presence or absence of debt and assets like a savings account – all play a significant role in a family’s economic situation. An even more important factor – whether that family receives the benefits of anti-poverty programs, such as SNAP, housing assistance, or refundable tax credits – is left completely untallied by the OPM. We cannot possibly know if such programs are effective if we are not accounting for them when we measure poverty.
Interestingly enough, the OPM forms the basis for the eligibility levels of those very programs. That basis is called the federal poverty level (FPL), and advocates have long suggested that a family needs to earn at least 200% of the FPL in order to cover all necessary expenses. In other words, the OPM likely undercounts actual poverty in the United States.
With this understanding in mind, along with the desire to create a more robust measurement of the lived experience of poverty, the Census created the supplemental poverty measure (SPM) in the late-2000s. In addition to counting a household’s income, the SPM also takes into account the regional cost of living, the presence of several anti-poverty benefits, such as SNAP and housing assistance, other income supports such as refundable tax credits, and also looks at typical costs, such as out-of-pocket expenses for child care and medical care, and transportation costs for getting to work.
As the SPM offers a more nuanced portrait of poverty, it generally shows that poverty rates are higher in a given area than the rates determined by the OPM. For example, the OPM in California was 10.8% in 2021-2023 while the SPM was 15%. Texas and Colorado also have higher SPMs than OPMs. But in New Mexico, while the OPM was 16.5%, the SPM was lower, at 11.1%. In fact, the SPM for New Mexico has been lower than the OPM ever since the SPM was created. Part of that is likely due to our lower cost of living.
However, when we look at child poverty specifically, the contrast is even greater. Our child poverty rate for the 2021-2023 timeframe was 27.4%, which is the highest rate in the nation. But our SPM for children was 8.9% – which is even lower than the national average, ranking us 17th in the nation by that measure. That means, 86,000 children were lifted out of poverty by the programs and other factors included in the SPM. Of course, during that 2021-2023 timeframe, child poverty fell dramatically across the nation due to the pandemic increase in the federal Child Tax Credit. But that is likely not the only reason child poverty fell so dramatically for New Mexico according to the SPM. There are a number of other factors that can help explain the significant drop in child poverty in New Mexico:
- Two refundable state tax credits, the Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) and the Low-Income Comprehensive Tax Rebate (LICTR), both of which were increased and/or expanded in 2021, return hundreds of millions of dollars to families earning low incomes.
- The expansion of our Child Care Assistance program, which occurred in 2021, made the program co-pay free for most families, cutting their out-of-pocket costs substantially.
- The expansion of Medicaid (which occurred in 2014), a free health insurance program that covers more New Mexicans than any other type of insurance, also decreases the out-of-pocket medical expenses for families.
And while several of the benefits programs that are considered under the SPM – such as SNAP, WIC, and TANF – are federally funded, the states have a great deal of discretion over how the programs are run, even so far as to be able to set their own eligibility and benefits levels. While New Mexico can improve the administration of TANF to ensure the program is as beneficial as possible, New Mexico has made great strides to increase eligibility and improve accessibility for SNAP and WIC so that it reaches more families in need.
While our much lower child poverty rate as determined by the SPM is great news, it isn’t an indication that all of our work is done. Too many New Mexico families still face large barriers to economic security. The cost of food and housing are still far above what they were before the post-pandemic recession. And too many families, particularly those living in rural parts of the state, still lack access to quality child care, affordable transportation, and amenities as basic as a neighborhood grocery store.
Although it’s impossible to know the exact difference each of these public policies has made on our child poverty rate, one thing is clear: our battery of programs is making a significant difference for families. We won’t be able to say that we’ve eliminated poverty until everyone is earning family-supporting wages, has the ability to build assets, and is free from crushing debt. When wages rise, our OPM will fall. Of course, part of the reasoning behind most anti-poverty programs is that they give families the foundation they need to improve their own situation. Income support programs that help families buy groceries, afford child care, and pay the rent are necessary in order for parents to get the education or job training they may need in order to earn higher wages. But, as with any social change, improvements take time. That is why our investments in these programs must be sustained, consistent, and long term.
Every family deserves support and opportunities to meet their children’s basic needs. One of the toughest challenges children and families in New Mexico face is breaking free from the cycle of generational poverty. Living in poverty means families are uncertain about their next meal, their ability to pay their rent or mortgage, and access to health care, while limited access to affordable child care complicates employment opportunities. Additionally, the inability to save increases financial strain. These struggles force families into difficult decisions, hindering their ability to meet basic needs and negatively impacting health and education over time. We are on the right course to improving child poverty in New Mexico. But we must stay the course while working to fill the gaps in our anti-poverty programs and picking up and implementing new tools as they become available.
New Mexico’s KIDS COUNT Story
KIDS COUNT is a nationwide effort to track the status and well-being of children in each state and across the nation by measuring indicators in four areas – economic well-being, education, health, and family and community – for which you’ll find data in this publication. You’ll also find policy recommendations in each area for improving outcomes. KIDS COUNT is driven by research showing that children’s chances of being healthy, doing well in school, and growing up to be productive and thriving members of society can be influenced by their experiences in the early years.
At its heart, KIDS COUNT tells a story of child well-being that’s set against a backdrop of the opportunities we’ve made available to our kids. And while the data included in this publication are important and useful, they don’t tell the whole story. We often don’t see the lived experiences of all communities accurately reflected in these numbers. Many of us have been taught that data are objective, and that the numbers we see reflected in statistics are unequivocally true. But choices are made throughout the data collection process that not only prevent them from reflecting our strengths, but that also limit, erase, and devalue the lived experiences of many groups including the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, Tribal communities, and many communities of color, particularly Black and Asian communities here in New Mexico.
The data also paint a picture of child well-being from a deficit perspective – a perspective that sadly ignores the extraordinary resilience, unmeasured strengths, and many successes of our children, families, and state in the face of deeply embedded systemic challenges. That story can be found among New Mexico’s unique cultural and linguistic diversity, centuries-old traditions, and our enduring sense of community.
The data also tell us where we have been rather than where we are now or where we are going. When all is said and done, KIDS COUNT is a snapshot – an accurate, if incomplete, picture of one point in time. For policymakers and advocates alike, it is an invaluable tool meant to make us take stock of how well we are protecting and nurturing our greatest asset – New Mexico’s children.
A Note About Data
Wherever possible, data are disaggregated to help provide a clearer understanding of disparities by race and ethnicity. In the past, New Mexico Voices for Children has reported data sets from organizations that suppress data for some races because the data are derived from small sample sizes, meaning the estimates are less accurate. We recognize this as problematic given our country’s long history of cultural erasure and New Mexico’s tricultural myth that typically implies only Hispanic, white, and Native American communities make up our population in the state and that these racial and ethnic groups have most often lived in relative harmony with one another throughout history. In response, we are including 2022-2023 data disaggregated by all available races and ethnicities when possible. These data will include a note regarding high margins of error for smaller demographic groups so readers are aware that some estimates may be less reliable than others while still providing insight into how smaller communities of color are faring in the state. Some rural and Tribal areas in New Mexico are also undercounted in U.S. Census data and can be underrepresented in other sources. As a result, the statistics throughout this report tell an even more limited story, and in some cases, the numbers don’t reflect people’s lived experiences. New Mexico Voices for Children is committed to continuing to engage with the communities represented in these data to better understand the stories, voices, and people behind the numbers. We are also committed to engaging with the communities left out of this data and advocating for better, more accurate, and inclusive data.