Poverty in The US

0. Introduction National poverty data are calculated using the official Census definition of poverty, under this definition poverty is determined by comparing pretax cash income with the poverty threshold, which adjusts for family size and composition. The federal government classified a family of four as "poor" if its cash income was less than $18,100; for a family of three, the poverty threshold was $15,020; for a married couple, $11,940; and for an individual, $8,860. . The number of poor families in …

…where poverty is found if a single EU poverty line is used, common to all members old and new. The majority of people in most of the applicant countries will classify as poor. If a single EU-wide standard is used as the measure, enlargement would also result in a drop in measured poverty in existing EU member states. Average incomes in the EU as a whole would fall with the accession of the CEE countries