The official definition of poverty for the . population uses money income before taxes and does not include capital gains or noncash benefits (such as public housing, Medicaid, and SNAP). The definition is based roughly on historical estimates of the portion of an average household’s income required to purchase a “minimally nutritious diet” (about 30% in the early 1960s). Poverty thresholds, set at three times the amount necessary to buy such a diet, are amounts of money estimated by the federal government to approximate statistical levels of necessity for families of different size and composition (., number.
