As a result of lower earnings in the middle of the income distribution, the median income has fallen, thus resulting in a lower poverty threshold and less poverty in relative terms. Individuals that used to be poor in 2009 may have ceased to be so in 2012, not due to an improvement in their incomes, but simply because the poverty threshold declined together with median incomes. Using this measure, and applying the modified OECD equivalence scale and the 60% of median income threshold for 2009, poverty has increased from 17.9% to 24.7% between 2009 and 2012 (Table 1). The use of this different definition is necessary because 2012 data are available only in this way.