The U.S. Census Bureau's Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program provides annual estimates of income and poverty statistics for all school districts, counties, and states. The main objective of this program is to provide estimates of income and poverty for the administration of federal programs and the allocation of federal funds to local jurisdictions. In addition to these federal programs, state and local programs use the income and poverty estimates for distributing funds and managing programs.
The SAIPE program produces the following county and state estimates:
- total number of people in poverty
- number of children under age 5 in poverty (for states only)
- number of related children ages 5 to 17 in families in poverty
- number of children under age 18 in poverty
- median household income