U.S.:Poverty Declines in 23 States in 2015

The official poverty rate for the United States declined in 2015 to 13.5 percent from a rate of 14.8 percent in 2014. However, this decrease in poverty was not uniform across states or Metropolitan Statistical Areas when looking at data from the American Community Survey — another key data source for examining poverty at state and local levels. In fact, poverty rates decreased in 23 states and did not increase in any state in 2015, as shown in Figure 1. However, poverty rates in 27 states and Washington, D.C., were statistically unchanged.

The U.S. Census Bureau has awarded two cooperative agreements to research teams at Georgetown University and Purdue University. These teams of university-based researchers are at the forefront of the emerging field of privacy-preserving data analysis, and their efforts will assist the Census Bureau in ensuring we continue to be a leader in protecting confidential information.

Last week, Secretary Pritzker sat down with Tim O’Reilly, Founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media at the Next Economy Summit in San Francisco to discuss the Department’s efforts to strengthen the digital economy and to improve the collection and dissemination of its troves of data. The Summit brought together other CEOs, thought leaders, policy makers, and others who have a stake in shaping the future economy.

In the first few weeks after the storm, there is a often a mad rush to grab and review real-time data collected during the storm and to collect new data to determine the degree of the storm’s impact.  To capture all of these impacts one needs to find specific datasets for each hazard in some cases. Below, we provide a quick snapshot (not all inclusive) and links to these various datasets, by hazard type as well as overall impact.

Anyone interested in economic growth in, let’s say, West Virginia can check state GDP data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Want to zoom in on a metro area, such as Charleston, W.Va., and its surroundings? BEA has gross domestic product by metropolitan areas, too.