The Rising Prevalence of Severe Poverty in America: A Growing Threat to Public Health

Proportion of Americans below or near the poverty threshold, 1990–2004. Data are derived from U.S. Census Bureau⁹ and analyzed as described in the text. The poverty threshold is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau based on family size (from one person to nine or more people) cross-classified by presence and number of family members aged <18 years (from no children present to eight or more children present). Unrelated individuals and two-person families are further differentiated by age of reference person (<65 years and ≥65 years). Poverty thresholds for each year are available at www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/threshld.html.

Proportion of families and unrelated individuals in income deficit/surplus Tiers I, II, and III, 1990 to 2004. Data are aggregated from the table posted online (abstracted from U.S. Census Bureau data) and analyzed as described in the text. Unrelated individuals are persons who are not members of families. The U.S. Census Bureau does not provide complete data for unrelated individuals from before 1996. Tier I, income deficit ≥$8000; Tier IIa, income deficit <$8000; Tier IIb, income surplus <$8000; Tier III, income surplus ≥$8000.