In the UK the official Government definition of poverty is anyone whose gross annual income is less than half the average wage. At the time of writing this would mean anyone who receives less than about £10,000 a year (about US$16,000). By this standard there are something like 4 million British households living in poverty -- I don't know if this is better or worse than in other developed countries but as a Brit I personally find it a rather shocking statistic.