Percent of Population Living in Poverty

The Percent of Population Living in Poverty is calculated using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates (https://www.census.gov/data/developers/data-sets/acs-5year.html ). To determine this percentage, the number of individuals classified as living below the federal poverty level in a specified geographic area—such as a county, census tract, or state—is first identified from the ACS data. This number is then divided by the total population of the same area, as reported in the ACS. The resulting fraction is multiplied by 100 to convert it into a percentage. *This calculation method is provided by the CDC National Environmental Public Health Tracking (https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/indicatorPages )