Government Stats: Do we need a new formula for measuring poverty?

Via the Washington Post:

Poverty will be measured two ways in the coming cencsus, using both the old formula and a new formula. Here's how that turned out in New York . . .
Two years, ago, New York City became the nation's first jurisdiction to adopt its own way of measuring poverty, also based on the academy's work. A report issued Tuesday by New York's Center for Economic Opportunity shows that its new approach produces a higher poverty rate. For 2008, the report found, the city's poverty rate was 22 percent under the new formula, compared with slightly less than 18 percent using the official federal definition.

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