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INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW 79 Effects on the Poverty Rate We carried out another set of comparisons to illustrate the effects on the overall poverty rate of raising the poverty threshold in real terms, as well as implementing the recommended adjustments to the threshold and family resource definition. For this exercise, we used a two-adult/two-child family threshold of $14,800, representing the midpoint of our suggested range for that threshold of $13,700 to $15,900. Under the proposed measureâwith a $14,800 reference family threshold and a 0.75 scale economy factorâ46.0 million people would have been classified as poor in 1992, for a poverty rate of 18.1 percent, compared with the official count of 36.9 million and the official poverty rate of 14.5 percent. Figure 1-7 shows the effects for both a 0.75 and a 0.65 scale economy factor, FIGURE 1-7 Poverty rates under the current and proposed measures, 1992.