An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Bureau of Labor Statistics > Price and Index Number Research > Price research data > Research Poverty Thresholds

Research Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), 2021


Measure	Threshold amount
Official	$27,479
SPM Owners with mortgages	$31,107
SPM Owners without mortgages	$26,279
SPM Renters	$31,453
NOTE: Research SPM Thresholds are produced in the Division of Price and Index Number Research (DPINR), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Shelter expenditures include those for mortgage principal. Thresholds and statistics for 2019 revised and 2020 are based on Food, Clothing, Shelter, Utilities, Internet, and Telephone (FCSUit) and include in-kind benefits for LIHEAP, NSLP, WIC, and rental assistance; rental assistance is calculated for Consumer Units in public housing, rental units subsided with financial assistance, rent-controlled rental units, and units receiving rent as pay. For the 2019 revised and later thresholds, telephone is no longer considered part of utilities but is instead added to the SPM thresholds in the same way as food and clothing. Owner shelter expenditures include those for mortgage principal payments. The 2021 thresholds do not include rent as payment received by renters, unlike previous thresholds. Source: The thresholds, shares, and means were produced by Juan D. Munoz under the guidance of Thesia I. Garner. Munoz and Garner work in the Division of Price and Index Number Research, BLS. These thresholds and statistics are produced for research purposes only using the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Interview Survey. The thresholds are not BLS production quality. The revised 2019 and later thresholds incorporate all the changes approved September 30, 2020 by the Interagency Technical Working Group on the SPM. For methodological details and related research regarding the SPM thresholds, see <https://stats.bls.gov/pir/spmhome.htm>.

Last Modified Date: August 29, 2023