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Computations for the 2001 Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines for the 48 Contiguous States and the District of Columbia

(1)
Size of family unit
(2)
Poverty thresholds for 1999 (weighted averages)a/
(3)
Column 2 multiplied by 1.034 price inflatorb/
(4)
Difference between successive Column 3 entries
(5)
Average difference in Column 4c/
(6)
February 2001 poverty guidelines
1 $8,501 $8,790     $8,590
      $2,449 $3,020  
2 10,869 11,239     11,610
      2,503 3,020  
3 13,290 13,742     14,630
      3,866 3,020  
4 17,029 17,608     17,650d/
      3,203 3,020  
5 20,127 20,811     20,670
      2,689 3,020  
6 22,727 23,500     23,690
      3,293 3,020  
7 25,912 26,793     26,710
      3,159 3,020  
8 28,967 29,952     29,730
a/  Column 2 entries are from U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, Series P60-210, Poverty in the United States:  1999, Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, September 2000, Table A-2, p. A-4.

b/  Price inflation calculated from Table 7 (1A) of U.S. Department of Labor, Consumer Price Index press release (USDL-01-18), January 17, 2001.  (The Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) for all items was 166.6 for calendar year 1999 and 172.2 for calendar year 2000, an increase of 3.4 percent.)

c/  The arithmetic average of Column 4 entries, rounded to the nearest multiple of $20.

d/  Obtained by multiplying the average poverty threshold for a family unit of four persons for 1999 ($17,029, from Column 2) by the price increase factor from 1999 to 2000 (1.034) and rounding the result upward to the nearest whole multiple of $50.  All other entries in Column 6 are obtained by successive addition or subtraction of the average difference ($3,020) to the size-4 2001 guideline entry ($17,650).

For Alaska and Hawaii, where the cost of living is traditionally believed to be significantly higher than in other states, scaling factors of 1.25 and 1.15, respectively, are applied to the 2001 guideline for a family of four for the 48 contiguous states, and the results (if not already a multiple of $10) are rounded upward to the nearest whole multiple of $10.  (These scaling factors were based on Office of Economic Opportunity administrative practice for these two states only beginning in the 1966-1970 period.)  These scaling factors are applied to the average difference for the 48 contiguous states (Column 5) to obtain average differences for Alaska and Hawaii for deriving guidelines for other family sizes.  For families with more than 8 members, add the following amount for each additional person: $3,020 (48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia); $3,780 (Alaska); $3,470 (Hawaii).