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FlyingSquirlez OP t1_jdx5i3g wrote

Reply to comment by Old_Captain_9131 in [OC] Percentage of People in Poverty by State Using 3-Year Average: 2019, 2020, and 2021 (Supplemental Poverty Measure) by FlyingSquirlez

I did some quick data analysis because your comment made me curious, and it looks like there are only very weak correlations (R^2 < 0.2) between state GDP or average income and SPM values with low slope trendlines. I can see where the idea comes from, though, with many of the richest states also having high SPM. That said, there are notable exceptions (Illinois, Washington, Massachusetts, etc.) to this, and you can see many of the poorest states also have high SPM values. All in all, it's a wash.

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J_McJesky t1_jdxm5an wrote

Does the SPM take homelessness into account? If it has weighting for higher rates of unhoused individuals, the correlation could simply be with climate. CA and TX for example are wealthy, have higher than average homelessness, and have few days below freezing annually in their major population centers.

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FlyingSquirlez OP t1_jdxqxhi wrote

The data comes from the Current Population Survey, which is sponsored jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. This is a household survey, so it only samples those with an address. This is a potential shortcoming of the survey, as states like Hawaii, New York, and California with homelessness rates of ~0.3% to ~0.5% may in fact get undercounted.

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