SINCE 1828
poverty line
nounDefinition of poverty line
: a level of personal or family income below which one is classified as poor according to governmental standards
— called also poverty level
Examples of poverty line in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Additionally, while median household incomes have increased to around $30,000, about 35% of Detroit residents still live below the poverty line, with the child poverty rate at 48%. — NBC News, "Detroit may be going through a revival, but how does this impact education?," 6 Sep. 2019 Since nearly 73% of Garissa residents already live below the poverty line, the climate crisis is likely to fuel social instability as traditional agricultural jobs disappear. — Jillian Keenan, Time, "'I Need the Money But I Feel Guilt.' How a Drought-Resistant Crop Turned Women in Kenya into Reluctant Drug Lords," 20 Aug. 2019 Nearly 21 million live below the poverty line, an increase of 500,000 this year, official statistics show. — New York Times, "Putin’s Uncertain Future Shadows a Crackdown on Moscow Protests," 2 Aug. 2019 The gross income limit for SNAP is 130% of the federal poverty line, which equals roughly $32,640 a year for a family of four. — Billy Kobin, The Courier-Journal, "Thousands of Kentuckians could lose food stamps under Trump plan to tighten SNAP rules," 31 July 2019 The federal income limit for SNAP is 130% of the federal poverty line, which for a family of three totals gross earnings of $27,729 a year. — Alexia Elejalde-ruiz, chicagotribune.com, "77,000 Illinois households could lose food stamps under proposed USDA changes," 25 July 2019 Wages average about $11 per hour, keeping employees near or below the poverty line, Oxfam found. — Los Angeles Times, "U.S. chicken industry accused of conspiring to keep immigrant wages down," 3 Sep. 2019 Properly measured, the share of the population living below the poverty line has fallen from nearly a third in the early 1960s to the mid–single digits today. — John Hood, National Review, "New Nationalists Make Three Big Bets," 28 Aug. 2019 This was seen as a financial blow in a city where the median income is $34,826 and nearly 30 percent of residents live below the poverty line. — Nick Corasaniti, New York Times, "Newark Water Crisis: Racing to Replace Lead Pipes in Under 3 Years," 26 Aug. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'poverty line.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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