HONOLULU (AP) — New federal estimates show Hawaii has the nation’s ninth-highest poverty rate when cost of living is taken into account, with 1 out of 6 state residents living in poverty. ADVERTISING HONOLULU (AP) — New federal estimates show
HONOLULU (AP) — New federal estimates show Hawaii has the nation’s ninth-highest poverty rate when cost of living is taken into account, with 1 out of 6 state residents living in poverty.
The U.S. Census Bureau data released Tuesday incorporate cost of living and consider government benefits aimed at relieving poverty. The resulting supplementary poverty measure is different from the official poverty measure.
The report says 15.1 percent of Americans are living in poverty, compared to 16.8 percent in Hawaii. The state tied with Georgia for its percentage of people living in poverty.
Hawaii’s supplementary poverty measure is more than its official poverty rate of 10.9 percent recorded last year. That gap, the nation’s largest between official and supplementary measures, marked a difference of 80,000 people.
Under the official poverty rate, about 149,000 Hawaii residents are considered to be living in poverty. About 229,000 fall below the poverty line when using the supplementary poverty rate.
“We are the clearest story in the nation of how the official poverty rate doesn’t provide a full picture,” said Nicole Woo, senior policy analyst at the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice. The supplemental measure “is a reflection of the costs in Hawaii.”
The official measure is still more widely used, including in determining state funding distributions for major federal government programs.
