How is poverty defined, and what is persistent poverty?
The Census Bureau recognizes as poor any individual or family whose income is not sufficient to cover the cost of food, clothing, shelter and other essentials and services. In 2003 the Office of Management and Budget set all new poverty lines, they can be found at http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/img/povmeas/sum.pdf. Persistent poverty is measured by county a persistent poverty county is one in which 20 percent or more of residents were poor as measured by each of the last 4 censuses, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000. Of the 386 persistent poverty counties in the U.S. 340 are rural.
