Poverty

Two related versions of federal poverty measures are shown in Health, United States.

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)

NHANES uses a ratio of family income to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) poverty guidelines. The poverty guidelines are derived from the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty thresholds and issued annually by HHS. These guidelines are often used to determine financial eligibility for certain federal programs. The HHS poverty guidelines consider family size but not family composition. Three sets of guidelines are defined for the 48 contiguous states and District of Columbia, Alaska, and Hawaii. For more information, see the HHS Poverty Guidelines website.

The ratio of family income to HHS poverty guidelines is computed considering the respondent’s family income, family size, state, and appropriate guideline year. People with unknown family income are excluded from estimates by poverty level, because their percentage of poverty level cannot be calculated. The percentage of people with unknown percentage of poverty level varies across data sets. See: Johnson CL, Paulose-Ram R, Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Kruszon-Moran D, Dohrmann SM, Curtin LR. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey: Analytic guidelines, 1999–2010. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital Health Stat 2(161). 2013.

National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)

NHIS uses a ratio of family income to the federal poverty threshold. Poverty thresholds are updated annually for inflation by the U.S. Census Bureau using the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers. Poverty thresholds include a set of income thresholds that vary by family size and composition but do not vary geographically. Families or people with incomes below the appropriate threshold are classified as below poverty for statistical purposes. For example, the weighted average poverty threshold for a family of four was $27,740 in 2021, $26,496 in 2020, $26,172 in 2019, $24,257 in 2015, $22,314 in 2010, and $17,603 in 2000. For more information, see the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty thresholds.

Starting with 1997 data, NHIS’s poverty ratio is based on family income, family size, and family composition (number of children in the family, and for families with two or fewer adults, the age of the adults in the family). Also see Sources and Definitions, Consumer Price Index [CPI]; Family income; National Health Interview Survey [NHIS]. Beginning with the 2019 NHIS, poverty is assessed as part of the annual core in the Sample Adult and Sample Child questionnaires. From 1997 through 2018, poverty was assessed using the Family Core questionnaire of NHIS. For NHIS data years before 1997, the ratio of family income to U.S. Census Bureau poverty threshold was computed considering family income and family size.