Hi,
In the United States, what is the criteria for poverty level (income /
living condition) and how many americans are now living in poverty?

Hello kivo,

The information you want is available on this page:

"Poverty"
U.S. Census Bureau
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty.html

As you can see, there is a set of links for "Poverty Definition,
Thresholds and Guidelines", which should answer the first part of your
question.  (For example, by clicking "Poverty Thresholds" and then
"2002", you will see statistics such as the poverty threshold for a
family of four including two children, which was $18,244.)


As for the second part of your question, the official estimate is that
approximately 34.6 million Americans were living in poverty in 2002. 
This is indicated in the Press Release, Press Briefing, and other
material on the following page:

"Poverty 2002"
U.S. Census Bureau
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty02.html

- justaskscott


Search terms used on Google:

poverty site:gov

thanks scott:)

See also:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1076591,00.html
"Last year alone, another 1.7 million Americans slipped below the
poverty line, bringing the total to 34.6 million, one in eight of the
population. Over 13 million of them are children. In fact, the US has
the worst child poverty rate and the worst life expectancy of all the
world's industrialised countries, and the plight of its poor is
worsening.

"The ranks of the hungry are increasing in step. About 31 million
Americans were deemed to be "food insecure" (they literally did not
know where their next meal was coming from). Of those, more than nine
million were categorised by the US department of agriculture as
experiencing real hunger, defined by the US department of agriculture
as an "uneasy or painful sensation caused by lack of food due to lack
of resources to obtain food.""