The Census Bureau will release its annual official statistics on income and poverty on Tuesday, August 29. At AEI the day before the release, a panel of experts will brief reporters on how to interpret the numbers—whether they go up or down—with an emphasis on the strengths and weaknesses of the poverty measure. In addition, because of the interest in poverty in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the panel will also discuss the nature of concentrated poverty—which has declined sharply compared to what it was in 1990—and programs designed to alleviate it.

AEI scholars Douglas J. Besharov and Nicholas Eberstadt will be joined on the panel by W. Wilson Goode Sr., former mayor of Philadelphia and senior advisor on faith-based initiatives for Public/Private Ventures.