How does the U.S. Census Bureau define ratio of income to poverty?

Some Census Bureau tables show counts of people or families, categorized by how their income compares with their poverty threshold. The ratio of income to poverty is a family's or person's income divided by their poverty threshold. Income-to-poverty ratio categories represent variations of the poverty level. Frequently-used ratios include:

• Ratios below 1.00 (100 percent of poverty, that is, income less than the poverty threshold) are below the official poverty definition, while ratios of 1.00 or greater (100 percent of poverty or greater) indicate income above the poverty level.

• Ratios below 0.50 (50 percent of poverty, that is, income less than half of the poverty threshold) have sometimes been described as "severe poverty", while those with ratios at/or above 1.00 percent but less than 1.25 percent have been described as "near poverty".

The detailed and historical poverty tables from the Current Population Survey contain estimates on several income-to-poverty ratios. Most are at the national level, but POV-11 is at the state level.

Our most current data on income to poverty ratios comes from the American Community Survey 1-year estimates for all geographic areas of 65,000 or more population. These data tables are updated annually for all geographic areas in the U.S. Data for all geographic areas is available from the American Community Survey 5-year estimates.