poverty threshold

The income line a statistics agency uses to decide who counts as poor: a household whose income falls below the line for its size and make-up is counted as living in poverty.

A poverty threshold is a dollar amount. In the United States the Census Bureau compares a family's total income with the threshold that matches its size and the ages of its members, and if the income is lower, the family and everyone in it is counted as in poverty. People living alone or with housemates they are not related to are compared with a threshold for one person.

The official thresholds follow a federal rule, Statistical Policy Directive 14 from the Office of Management and Budget. There are 48 of them, varying by family size and the number of children under 18. They are the same across the whole country, with no allowance for local prices, and each year they are raised in line with the Consumer Price Index, the government's main measure of inflation. The income they are compared with is cash income before taxes, so tax credits and benefits paid in kind, such as housing help or food assistance, are left out. In 2025 the weighted average threshold for a family of four was 32,970 dollars.

The Census Bureau describes the thresholds as a statistical yardstick rather than a full account of what a family needs to live. That is why it also publishes a second measure, the Supplemental Poverty Measure, which draws its lines differently and counts more kinds of income and spending.

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