The national poverty rate was 14.8 percent in 2014, the latest year data was available. That amounts to roughly 46.7 million Americans living poverty, roughly the same number as the previous three years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Despite the nation's slow economic recovery, lower and middle class incomes have largely stagnated in recent years, broadening the gap between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else.

But what does it mean to actually live below the "poverty line," and who decided where that line should be drawn? Comic journalist Andy Warner breaks down these figures and what they mean for the millions of average American families scraping by.