Official Poverty Measure (OPM): Is determined annually by the U.S. Census bureau and is based off the minimum amount of food needed to have a nutritionally “fair” to “good” diet in the 1960s. Poverty Guidelines: Used to determine eligibility and are produced by USD-HHS. The Poverty Guidelines are based off of the OPM. Poverty guidelines use the number of people in a family unit to determine poverty status. For 2022, add $4,720 for each additional person to the base amount of $13,590.⁸ Poverty Threshold: A measurement of poverty determined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Poverty threshold calculations use a person’s age and household composition. Federal Poverty Limits/Levels (FPL): This is how the Poverty Guidelines are commonly referenced. Individuals for Whom Poverty Status is Determined: This includes all people except institutionalized people, people in military group quarters, people in college dormitories, people in unconventional living situations (and not in a shelter), and unrelated individuals of a household under 15 years of age (income questions are asked of people age 15 and older, so if someone under age 15 is not living with a family member, the Census Bureau does not know their income). Because people whose poverty status is undefined are excluded from Census Bureau poverty tabulations, the total population represented in poverty tables--the poverty universe--is slightly smaller than the overall population.⁹ Ratio of Income to Poverty Threshold: The ACS provides some data sets by the ratio of income to poverty threshold. The ratio of income to poverty is computed by dividing the total family income by the appropriate poverty threshold for that person’s family size and composition.¹⁰ Estimates: Poverty estimates (numbers) provide an approximation of how many people in a given group are living in poverty. Estimates are statistically determined based on a sample and weighted to bring the characteristics of the sample more into agreement with the full population.¹¹ Rates: Poverty rates help us make comparisons between geographies and population groups and understand what groups may be disproportionately represented among the population living in poverty. ACS data tables provide estimates for the number of individuals who are living in poverty, displayed according to various characteristics (i.e. age, family type, level of education) and geographies (i.e. cities, counties, block groups). The poverty rate for any given group is calculated by dividing the number of people in the group who live in poverty by the total number of people in the group for whom poverty is determined. For example, the poverty rate for children under 18 years is the number of children in households with incomes below the poverty threshold, divided by the total number of children for whom poverty is determined. Thus, the poverty rate is the percentage of people living in poverty. In this report, poverty rate and “percent in poverty” are used interchangeably. The three scenarios below demonstrate why it is important to consider both numbers and rates when using poverty data to answer a question or make a decision.