Poverty and income levels are important to public health.
We know that people living in poverty experience higher rates of some diseases. For example, low-income populations have more emergency department visits and hospitalizations for asthma than the general population. In some cases, these health disparities may be due to differences in health behaviors, access to care, medications, and preventive health services. Research shows that low socioeconomic status also increases the chance that a person's health is threatened by environmental conditions. People living in poverty are more likely to live in areas with poor quality housing, have less access to healthy foods, or live in close proximity to traffic and crowding.
Understanding the impact of poverty and income on public health is necessary for understanding how diseases can be prevented and is a priority for public health practitioners.
How is poverty described on this data portal?
Poverty includes a family's income, size, and composition (such as the number of children), and has both immediate and long-term effects on health. To learn more about poverty threshold calculations and to view the full set of thresholds by year, go to the U.S. Census Bureau's poverty webpage.