Mollie Orshansky, 91; economist created U.S. poverty line formula

Mollie Orshansky, 91, an economist and statistician who created a basic formula for calculating the poverty line that was adopted by the U.S. government, died Dec. 18 of cardiopulmonary arrest, the New York Times reported.

The family postponed announcing the death because of concerns over a long-running legal dispute involving Orshansky’s estate, the Times reported.

Orshansky was a research analyst for the Social Security Administration when she published her formula for measuring poverty in 1965. It first appeared in the Social Security Bulletin.

Using a low-cost food plan developed by the Department of Agriculture, Orshansky estimated the annual food budget for various size families and multiplied it by three to determine an annual income below which a family would live in poverty.

In 1964, she calculated, that income level was $3,128 for a family of four, or, 30% lower for families living on farms.

Her formula was adopted during the Johnson administration to help define his War on Poverty.

The “Orshansky Index” has remained the basic measure for the poverty threshold in the United States, with annual adjustments made based on increased consumer prices.

Orshansky was born Jan. 9, 1915, in New York City. She graduated from Hunter College before she began working as a research clerk for the U.S. Children’s Bureau, where she studied children’s health and nutrition, starting in 1939. She eventually joined the Social Security Administration as a research analyst in 1958. She retired in 1982.