About Hunger

Poverty and Hunger Statistics

The U.S. Government's "Yardstick" for measuring poverty


2004 Weighted Average Poverty Thresholds
One person	$9,643
Two people	$12,335
Three people	$15,071
Four people	$19,311
Five People	$22,837
Six people	$25,791
Seven people	$29,304
Eight people	$32,430
Nine people or more	$38,659
Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Mollie Orshansky of the Social Security Administration originally developed the poverty thresholds in 1964. Orshansky based her poverty thresholds on the economy food plan — the cheapest of four food plans developed by the Department of Agriculture. These plans, based on data from 1955, estimated that families of three or more persons spent about one third of their after-tax money income on food. The calculation uses pretax cash income and excludes non-cash benefits such as public housing, Medicaid, and food stamps. Except for some minor changes in 1969 and 1981, the thresholds have remained the federal standard for measuring poverty.

For a more complete history of the official poverty measure, see The Development of the Orshansky Thresholds and Their Subsequent History as the Official U.S. Poverty Measure by Gordon Fisher on the U.S. Census website.

Click here to see the entire threshold matrix.

National & State Statistics

	New Hampshire	United States
Poverty Rate (2003)	5.8%	12.5
Children in Poverty (2003)	7.2%	16.7%
Persons below 125% poverty line	8.1%	-----
Persons below 185% poverty line	17%	-----
Uninsured (2003)	9.7%	10.1%
Unemployed (2004)	3.75%	5.5%
Food Stamp Program (2003)	45,163	19,314,229
Average Monthly FS Benefit	$70.35	$79.62
Source: U.S. Census, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture