A family of four living in Seattle requires over $70,000 a year to make ends meet. (Photo: SalFalko, Flickr)

The “poverty level”, as most people know it, is the income line below which a person or family is living in serious economic deprivation. But recognizing is what does a family need to live a modest, secure life – and how does that vary by where you live?

Listen to the discussion on KUOW’s Weekday right now.

The Economic Policy Institute’s (EPI) Family Budget Calculator measures the income a family needs in for housing, food, child care, transportation, health care, other necessities, and taxes.

As compared with official poverty thresholds such as the federal poverty line and Supplemental Poverty Measure, EPI’s family budgets offer a higher degree of geographic customization and provide a more accurate measure of economic security. In all cases, they show families need more than twice the amount of the federal poverty line to get by.

See family budget data for other Washington cities EPI »