According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, "Poverty thresholds are used for calculating all official poverty population statistics - for instance, figures on the number of Americans in poverty each year… [and] poverty guidelines are a simplified version of the federal poverty thresholds used for administrative purposes - for instance, determining financial eligibility for certain federal programs." Poverty guidelines are produced by the Department of Health and Human Services, while poverty thresholds are produced by the U.S. Census.
Federal Poverty Guidelines, also referred to as the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), determines income ranges varying by family size and age make-up, and below which a household unit is said to be living in poverty. The income counted in the FPL calculations includes wage and salaries, unearned income and most transfer payments. The calculations do not include the value of non-cash benefits such as food stamps, housing subsidies, or Medicaid.
To calculate the poverty thresholds, the U.S. Census determines both income and need for households. Income is the "incomes of all related family members that live together" and need is the "dollar amounts used to determine poverty status". In short, poverty thresholds vary since they take into consideration the number of adults living in the household (1 or 2), the total number of dependents, as well as the total household income. If a family's total income is less than the associated poverty threshold, the family is living in poverty. If a family's income is equal to or greater than the associated poverty threshold, the family is not living in poverty.
The FPL does not vary by geographic region but is updated every fiscal year to account for increases in cost of living. The Consumer Price Index is used to calculate the yearly updates to the FPL. As is common in discussions of poverty, this indicator refers to shares of the population (all ages) living at or below the FPL in Spokane County. Population groups excluded from poverty counts are people living in: prisons and nursing homes, college dormitories, military barracks, and the homeless.
This indicator measures the share of the overall population who is living at or below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) in Walla Walla & Columbia counties combined. Washington State and the U.S. are offered as benchmarks. Additional information, including the margin of error used to determine the statistical significance of the numerical changes in this indicator, can be found in the “Download Data” section.
According to the US Census Bureau, the pandemic made the collection of accurate one-year estimates for the American Community Survey (ACS) impossible in 2020.
