How to Use the AMI Percent Calculator
Korea's "standard median income" (gijun jungwi sodeuk) is one single national figure used by nearly every welfare program. HUD's Area Median Income (AMI) is conceptually identical — a household-size-adjusted benchmark used to set eligibility for public housing, Section 8 vouchers, and affordable housing programs — but critically, it is calculated separately for every county and metro area, not nationwide. A $60,000 income could be "Low Income" in San Francisco and "Moderate Income" in a lower-cost rural county. This calculator uses a national representative median (about $80,610 for a 4-person household) with HUD's standard household-size adjustment factors, purely to illustrate how the percent-of-AMI system works.
HUD applies fixed adjustment percentages by household size relative to a 4-person baseline (70% for 1 person up to 132% for 8 people) to calculate each size's AMI, then classifies households into tiers: Extremely Low Income (30% AMI), Very Low Income (50% AMI), Low Income (80% AMI), and Moderate Income (120% AMI). For your actual eligibility, always look up your specific county's published income limits on HUD's official Income Limits tool, since local AMI can differ dramatically from this national estimate.
Frequently Asked Questions
No — that's the key difference. Korea's 'gijun jungwi sodeuk' (standard median income) is one national figure. HUD's Area Median Income is calculated separately for every county and metro area, so the actual dollar thresholds vary widely by location.
HUD classifies households at or below 30% AMI as Extremely Low Income, 50% AMI as Very Low Income, and 80% AMI as Low Income. These tiers are used to determine eligibility for public housing, Section 8 vouchers, and many affordable housing programs.