Income Poverty and Material Hardship: How Strong is the Association?

Authored by John Iceland of the University of Maryland and Kurt Bauman of the U.S. Census Bureau. This report, as part of the Working Paper Series of the National Poverty Center (NPC), uses data from the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation and explores the relationship between poverty and material hardship. Food insecurity, basic needs, and possession of consumer durables are examples of measures of material hardship.