The latest Census data released on Tuesday seem to reinforce the discouraging conclusion, over the long view of history, that we haven't put much of a dent in poverty in America despite our best efforts and big expenditures on anti-poverty programs. The official poverty rate ticked down in 2013, but with 14.5 percent of the population still living below the poverty line, that share is still about what it was in 1993, and 1982, and 1966:

The total number of Americans living in poverty has grown as the U.S. population has, too. But our poverty rate seems, at best, to have fluctuated, prompting commentary with the new data Tuesdaythat the poverty rate "has been going nowhere for decades," or that the War on Poverty "has failed." But the real picture is actually somewhat better than the one shown above.

That's because the official poverty rate — the one released by the Census Bureau on Tuesday — doesn't capture the impact of many of the programs the government runs to aid the poor, such as food stamps and housing vouchers. Three years ago, Census began to release a "Supplemental Poverty Measure" that does this better. This measure, unlike the official rate, also counts how much families are spending on many major expenses, like childcare, that heavily influence a family's standard of living.

The official measure, for instance, doesn't count the Earned Income Tax Credit in calculating who lives in poverty. The supplemental measure does. The official measure doesn't account for the heavy weight of medical expenses in eating up household income and driving families into poverty. The supplemental measure does.

Because the metric is a new one, Census doesn't have much historic data on how poverty, as it's measured in this more comprehensive way, has changed over time. But last year, researchers at Columbia University tried to look back at history with their own SPM-like measure and concluded that government anti-poverty programs have made a big difference in reducing poverty, particularly among children and the absolute worst-off.

In other words: The poverty rate looks high today — and like it hasn't changed much historically — but it would be a lot higher without government programs to support the poor.

The Census Bureau won't release the 2013 Supplemental Poverty Measure until October, but officials did release this helpful chart on Tuesday using 2012 data:



Census Bureau