Dimensions of Poverty
In this section, we summarize some basic facts about poverty in the United States, relying on a combination of previously published data from the Census Bureau and our own tabulation based on Current Population Survey data.
Throughout the paper, we measure individual poverty rates (the alternative is to measure poverty rates among families) using the official Census Bureau definition.
In particular, an individual is considered poor if their total family pretax money income in a given year is below the poverty threshold for their family size and age composition.
By construction, all persons in the same family have the same poverty status.
In 2004, the poverty threshold for a family of four was roughly $19,000, and for a single individual it was approximately $10,000. For details about poverty rates and how they are calculated, a useful starting point is the website of the U.S. Census Bureau at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty.html.