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Poverty Area Measures

This data product provides poverty area measures for counties and census tracts across the 50 States and Washington DC. The measures include high poverty areas, extreme poverty areas, persistent poverty areas, and enduring poverty areas.

Highlights: September 2025 Edition

  • County-level poverty area measures are provided for decennial years 1960 through 2000 and 5-year periods spanning 2007–11, 2017-21, 2018-22, and 2019-23. The same data periods are provided for census tracts except for 1960.
  • All measures are geographically standardized to allow for direct comparison over time and for census tracts-within-county analysis.
  • Diverse geocoding is provided, which can be used for mapping/GIS applications, to link to supplemental data (e.g., USDA, Economic Research Service’s Atlas of Rural and Small Town America), and to explore various spatial categories (e.g., regions and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan status).
  • The data are available in downloadable Excel and CSV file formats. The September 2025 edition files contain census tract and county geography current to 2023 (includes recent changes to Connecticut geographies). In comparison, the previous editions (November 2022 and December 2023) contain 2010 census tract geography and county geography current to 2021.

Definitions of the Poverty Area Measures

  • High poverty: areas with a poverty rate of 20.0 percent or more in a single time period.
  • Extreme poverty: areas with a poverty rate of 40.0 percent or more in a single time period.
  • Persistent poverty: areas with a poverty rate of 20.0 percent or more for 4 consecutive time periods, about 10 years apart, spanning approximately 30 years (baseline time period plus 3 evaluation time periods).
  • Enduring poverty: areas with a poverty rate of 20.0 percent or more for at least 5 consecutive time periods, about 10 years apart, spanning approximately 40 years or more (baseline time period plus 4 or more evaluation time periods).

Additional Information

Additional information can be found in the downloadable Excel file, which includes the documentation, data, and codebook for the poverty area measures. For more on the history, methodological details, uses of the measures, and example visualizations see:

Technical Bulletin: The Poverty Area Measures Data Product. This report contains historical information, technical documentation, and user guidance. Examples provided in the report are from the November 2022 edition of PAM, but the information is applicable to subsequent editions of the data.

Data Training Webinar: Poverty Area Measures. During this webinar, ERS Geographer Tracey Farrigan and ERS Economist Austin Sanders present an overview of the Poverty Area Measures data product. They highlight the product's many uses and demonstrate where to find the product on the ERS website. 

File Downloads