Last week I posted on the new Small Area Income and Poverty Esimates (SAIPE) for the U.S. and Pennsylvania and for Cambria and Forest Counties. The poverty rates for the U.S., Pennsylvania, and every county in the state are presented in the table at the bottom of the post. Subsequently, this post will look at different poverty measures for Pennsylvania.
Median Income
The graph above shows the trend in median income for Pennsylvania. A statistical median is the value that appears in the middle when all values rank from highest to lowest. It shows that income levels for Bucks, Chester and Montgomery Counties rose much faster than the rest of the state or the nation. The graph with these 3 counties along with the state and national rates is below. These counties are in the southeast corner of the state surrounding Philadelphia.
Supplemental Poverty Measure
Created by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the supplemental poverty measure is a response to criticisms of the official poverty measure being too narrow. For example the official poverty threshold for a family with 2 adults and 2 children is $31,812 regardless of their housing situation. The U.S. supplemental poverty threshold for the same family would be $39,068 for home owners with mortgages. For similar homeowners without mortgages it is $32,586. For the same family renting, the poverty threshold is $39,430. This means that for a family of 2 adults and 2 children, if their income in one of these 3 scenarios falls below those values, they are poor.
Consequently, these thresholds are adjusted for locality differences. In the graph above we see that the thresholds are lower for Pennsylvania in non metropolitan areas than the U.S. thresholds. The census bureau does not provide supplemental estimates at the state or county levels. For the U.S. in 2024, the supplemental estimate is 12.9% whereas the SAIPE estimate for it is 12.1%. These are but a few of the different poverty measures for Pennsylvania.
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State Table
| Name | % Percent in Poverty | Median Household Income $ | Population | Number in Poverty |
| United States | 12.1 | $81,604 | 332,143,258 | 40,354,267 |
| Pennsylvania | 11.6 | $77,532 | 12,647,180 | 1,463,161 |
| Adams County | 7.7 | $85,854 | 102,876 | 7,949 |
| Allegheny County | 11.7 | $80,878 | 1,193,946 | 139,405 |
| Armstrong County | 12.4 | $63,472 | 62,964 | 7,836 |
| Beaver County | 11.2 | $73,077 | 163,154 | 18,273 |
| Bedford County | 11.7 | $59,645 | 47,279 | 5,515 |
| Berks County | 12.8 | $78,176 | 426,369 | 54,537 |
| Blair County | 12 | $65,984 | 116,590 | 13,967 |
| Bradford County | 11.6 | $62,009 | 58,992 | 6,850 |
| Bucks County | 6.1 | $112,331 | 641,571 | 39,278 |
| Butler County | 7.9 | $95,450 | 192,007 | 15,200 |
| Cambria County | 14.5 | $61,223 | 124,590 | 18,100 |
| Cameron County | 12.7 | $56,595 | 4,304 | 548 |
| Carbon County | 11.3 | $66,998 | 64,759 | 7,294 |
| Centre County | 14.3 | $76,524 | 140,263 | 20,042 |
| Chester County | 6.4 | $130,877 | 543,271 | 34,512 |
| Clarion County | 11.8 | $60,755 | 34,826 | 4,119 |
| Clearfield County | 14.9 | $61,276 | 73,135 | 10,898 |
| Clinton County | 14.8 | $65,983 | 35,885 | 5,298 |
| Columbia County | 13.5 | $65,026 | 61,860 | 8,340 |
| Crawford County | 16.8 | $58,757 | 78,689 | 13,187 |
| Cumberland County | 8.1 | $90,939 | 260,703 | 21,126 |
| Dauphin County | 13 | $72,875 | 286,311 | 37,159 |
| Delaware County | 10.7 | $90,113 | 562,116 | 59,954 |
| Elk County | 10 | $66,741 | 29,769 | 2,983 |
| Erie County | 14.7 | $63,912 | 254,519 | 37,440 |
| Fayette County | 14.7 | $60,039 | 120,623 | 17,690 |
| Forest County | 22.8 | $55,213 | 3,946 | 900 |
| Franklin County | 9.3 | $75,061 | 157,157 | 14,596 |
| Fulton County | 10.7 | $69,381 | 14,262 | 1,521 |
| Greene County | 17.7 | $63,608 | 31,194 | 5,516 |
| Huntingdon County | 10.7 | $66,355 | 38,520 | 4,131 |
| Indiana County | 16 | $61,768 | 77,110 | 12,365 |
| Jefferson County | 11.6 | $61,167 | 42,670 | 4,932 |
| Juniata County | 9.7 | $71,150 | 23,082 | 2,233 |
| Lackawanna County | 14.9 | $67,341 | 209,022 | 31,082 |
| Lancaster County | 7.7 | $85,829 | 546,986 | 41,846 |
| Lawrence County | 14.3 | $59,609 | 82,247 | 11,770 |
| Lebanon County | 9.5 | $74,200 | 141,778 | 13,413 |
| Lehigh County | 11.1 | $80,820 | 377,664 | 41,820 |
| Luzerne County | 13.4 | $66,221 | 320,549 | 42,939 |
| Lycoming County | 15.1 | $61,034 | 107,869 | 16,235 |
| Mc Kean County | 14.3 | $59,147 | 36,582 | 5,234 |
| Mercer County | 13.1 | $61,006 | 102,203 | 13,396 |
| Mifflin County | 12.5 | $64,972 | 45,215 | 5,671 |
| Monroe County | 10.8 | $76,974 | 163,030 | 17,643 |
| Montgomery County | 6.2 | $111,915 | 857,438 | 53,246 |
| Montour County | 9.8 | $78,039 | 17,463 | 1,716 |
| Northampton County | 8.8 | $89,712 | 306,717 | 26,940 |
| Northumberland County | 14.2 | $61,984 | 86,774 | 12,363 |
| Perry County | 8.6 | $77,074 | 46,138 | 3,978 |
| Philadelphia County | 19.7 | $60,500 | 1,520,262 | 299,377 |
| Pike County | 9.9 | $81,717 | 61,815 | 6,100 |
| Potter County | 13.9 | $56,229 | 15,735 | 2,193 |
| Schuylkill County | 12.5 | $68,552 | 137,455 | 17,197 |
| Snyder County | 12 | $65,157 | 37,189 | 4,459 |
| Somerset County | 12.4 | $62,644 | 67,638 | 8,378 |
| Sullivan County | 12.8 | $67,001 | 5,707 | 732 |
| Susquehanna County | 12.1 | $69,771 | 37,712 | 4,550 |
| Tioga County | 11.4 | $63,734 | 39,280 | 4,483 |
| Union County | 10.8 | $74,727 | 35,247 | 3,824 |
| Venango County | 13.2 | $59,729 | 48,782 | 6,426 |
| Warren County | 10.1 | $61,919 | 36,592 | 3,702 |
| Washington County | 10.3 | $76,961 | 205,804 | 21,104 |
| Wayne County | 13 | $67,672 | 48,326 | 6,281 |
| Westmoreland County | 10.5 | $75,550 | 344,684 | 36,134 |
| Wyoming County | 9.7 | $74,590 | 25,155 | 2,435 |
| York County | 9.2 | $81,537 | 462,810 | 42,799 |