Definitions:
Household income is the sum of money income received in the
previous calendar year by all household members 15 years old and over, including
household members not related to the householder, people living alone, and others
in nonfamily households. The median household income reported here was produced
through statistical modeling.
Families and persons are classified as below poverty level
if their total family income or unrelated individual income was less than the
poverty threshold specified for the applicable family size, age of householder,
and number of related children under 18 present (see table below for poverty
level thresholds). The state and county estimates here were produced through
statistical modeling.
Poverty status is determined for all families (and, by implication, all family
members). For persons not in families, poverty status is determined by their
income in relation to the appropriate poverty threshold. Thus, two unrelated
individuals living together may not have the same poverty status. The poverty
thresholds are updated every year to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index.
Scope and Methodology:
The estimates of poverty presented here originate from the Small Area Income
and Poverty Estimates Program at the Census Bureau. The main
objective of this program is to provide updated income and poverty statistics
that are needed in the administration of federal programs and in the allocation
of federal funds to local jurisdictions.
The program currently makes estimates for the following key statistics: median
household income, number of people below the poverty level, number of children
under age 5 below the poverty level (for states only), number of related children
ages 5 to 17 years in families below the poverty level, and number of people
under age 18 years below the poverty level.
The estimates are not direct counts from enumerations or administrative records,
or direct estimates from sample surveys. Currently available data from these
sources are not adequate to provide postcensal estimates for all counties. Instead,
the estimates are based on modeled relations between current income and poverty
levels and income tax and program data available for counties and states for
years following the decennial census.
The estimates are produced by combining results from the Census Bureau's March
Current Population Survey with aggregate data from federal individual income
tax records, food stamps program participants statistics, population estimates,
and 1990 census figures. Tabulations for 1993 mark the first time the Census
Bureau has issued county-level income and poverty estimates in noncensus years.
Household Income and People Below Poverty Level, 1997