Forty-four million people in the United States, or one in seven residents, lived in poverty in 2009, an increase of 4 million from the year before, the Census Bureau reported on Thursday…

For a single adult in 2009, the poverty line was $10,830 in pretax cash income; for a family of four, $22,050…

By any measure, living on so little income is precarious, and some experts think that people who are getting by on as much as twice the official poverty line should nonetheless be considered poor.