Measuring Poverty in the United States

This fact sheet is from the National Center for Children in Poverty and provides information on how the United States government measures poverty, and offers alternative ways for measuring economic hardship. Currently, the official poverty measure in 2009 is $22,050 a year for a family of four and $18,310 for a family of three, which is used to determine eligibility for public programs. Authors suggest creating a measure that accounts for regional differences would help families to better understand families in poverty across the country.