True Poverty in New Jersey

PRI’s True Poverty report establishes the bare minimum income required for working families to afford basic necessities, without trading off one need for another or depending on help from the government, family, friends, or neighbors. Majority of New Jersey families need, on average, at least 300% of the FPL to avoid deprivation. The discrepancy between FPL and TPL is mainly due to New Jersey’s high cost of living, which is the third highest in the nation. Since the calculation of the federal poverty threshold does not include any geographic adjustments for cost of living, it severely underestimates poverty in New Jersey.

Accordingly, this page shows poverty at two different levels:

• TPL or the True Poverty Level — a more realistic indicator of people actually experiencing deprivation in New Jersey.    
• FPL or the Federal Poverty Level.