Topics: Economics and Personal Finances, Socioeconomic Class. 1  Richard Fry is a senior researcher focusing on economics and education at Pew Research Center. 2  Rakesh Kochhar is an associate director of research at Pew Research Center.
In the United States, the Census Bureau determines who is poor using an economic poverty measure, by calculating official poverty estimates using a set of dollar-value thresholds, or minimum amount of income needed to meet basic needs, that vary by family size and composition.
The term Least Developed Countries (LDCs) describes the world's poorest countries with following 3 criteria: Low-income criterion based on a three-year average estimate of the gross national income (GNI) per capita (under $750 for inclusion, above $900 for graduation). Human resource weakness criterion.