Définition
An individual (or a household) is considered to be poor when living in a household where the standard of living is below the poverty line.
The INSEE, like EUROSTAT, measures monetary poverty in a relative manner whereas other countries (such as the United States and Canada) adopt an absolute approach.
In the approach in relative terms, the poverty line is indeed determined in relation to the distribution of the standards of living in the whole population. Generally speaking, EUROSTAT and the European countries use a line at 60% of the median of standards of living, but publish rates of poverty according to the other thresholds (40 %, 50 % or 70 %), according to the recommendations of the report of Cnis on the measure of the disparities.