Poverty is often associated with joblessness, but a large proportion of poor people are actually working or looking for work. In 2009, according to the US Census Bureau's official definition of poverty, 8.8 million US families were below the poverty line (11.1% of all families). Of these families, 5.19 million, or
58.9%, had at least one person who was classified as working. If a European-style poverty measure were employed instead of the US Census Bureau's, a larger proportion of poor families and workers would be classified as working poor.