Food stamps had a greater effect in reducing poverty rates in rural America than in urban areas when viewed through the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, said an American Enterprise Institute newsletter. Northwestern University professor Diane Schanzenbach calculated that SNAP lowered the poverty rate in rural areas by 1.4 percentage points compared to a 0.8 point reduction in urban America.
“In other words, if it were not for SNAP, the poverty rate would have been 9.7 percent instead of 8.3 percent,” wrote Schanzenbach. “For children in non-metro areas, SNAP reduced the poverty rate by 2.6 percentage point. While SNAP also substantially reduces poverty in metro areas, its impact in those counties is smaller, at 0.8 percentage points overall and 1.4 percentage points for children.”
The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) is an alternate method for gauging poverty “by taking account of many of the government programs designed to assist low-income families and individuals that are not included in the official poverty measure,” says the Census Bureau. In 2020, the year Schanzenbach used in her analysis, the nationwide SPM rate was 9.1 percent, 2.3 points lower than the official poverty rate. “This is the first time in the history of the SPM that poverty was lower using the SPM than the official poverty rate,” said Census.
“Despite robust support from SNAP, food hardship is still higher in non-metro areas,” wrote Schanzenbach, citing USDA data on food insecurity, affecting 11.6 percent of rural Americans vs. 10.4 percent of urban residents.