disadvantages of poverty essay

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2.4 The Consequences of Poverty

Learning objectives.

• Describe the family and housing problems associated with poverty.
• Explain how poverty affects health and educational attainment.

Regardless of its causes, poverty has devastating consequences for the people who live in it. Much research conducted and/or analyzed by scholars, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations has documented the effects of poverty (and near poverty) on the lives of the poor (Lindsey, 2009; Moore, et. al., 2009; Ratcliffe & McKernan, 2010; Sanders, 2011). Many of these studies focus on childhood poverty, and these studies make it very clear that childhood poverty has lifelong consequences. In general, poor children are more likely to be poor as adults, more likely to drop out of high school, more likely to become a teenaged parent, and more likely to have employment problems. Although only 1 percent of children who are never poor end up being poor as young adults, 32 percent of poor children become poor as young adults (Ratcliffe & McKernan, 2010).

Poor children are more likely to have inadequate nutrition and to experience health, behavioral, and cognitive problems.

Kelly Short – Poverty: “Damaged Child,” Oklahoma City, OK, USA, 1936. (Colorized). – CC BY-SA 2.0.

A recent study used government data to follow children born between 1968 and 1975 until they were ages 30 to 37 (Duncan & Magnuson, 2011). The researchers compared individuals who lived in poverty in early childhood to those whose families had incomes at least twice the poverty line in early childhood. Compared to the latter group, adults who were poor in early childhood

• had completed two fewer years of schooling on the average;
• had incomes that were less than half of those earned by adults who had wealthier childhoods;
• received $826 more annually in food stamps on the average;
• were almost three times more likely to report being in poor health;
• were twice as likely to have been arrested (males only); and
• were five times as likely to have borne a child (females only).

We discuss some of the major specific consequences of poverty here and will return to them in later chapters.

Family Problems

The poor are at greater risk for family problems, including divorce and domestic violence. As Chapter 9 “Sexual Behavior” explains, a major reason for many of the problems families experience is stress. Even in families that are not poor, running a household can cause stress, children can cause stress, and paying the bills can cause stress. Families that are poor have more stress because of their poverty, and the ordinary stresses of family life become even more intense in poor families. The various kinds of family problems thus happen more commonly in poor families than in wealthier families. Compounding this situation, when these problems occur, poor families have fewer resources than wealthier families to deal with these problems.

Children and Our Future

Getting under Children’s Skin: The Biological Effects of Childhood Poverty

As the text discusses, childhood poverty often has lifelong consequences. Poor children are more likely to be poor when they become adults, and they are at greater risk for antisocial behavior when young, and for unemployment, criminal behavior, and other problems when they reach adolescence and young adulthood.

According to growing evidence, one reason poverty has these consequences is that it has certain neural effects on poor children that impair their cognitive abilities and thus their behavior and learning potential. As Greg J. Duncan and Katherine Magnuson (Duncan & Magnuson, 2011, p. 23) observe, “Emerging research in neuroscience and developmental psychology suggests that poverty early in a child’s life may be particularly harmful because the astonishingly rapid development of young children’s brains leaves them sensitive (and vulnerable) to environmental conditions.”

In short, poverty can change the way the brain develops in young children. The major reason for this effect is stress. Children growing up in poverty experience multiple stressful events: neighborhood crime and drug use; divorce, parental conflict, and other family problems, including abuse and neglect by their parents; parental financial problems and unemployment; physical and mental health problems of one or more family members; and so forth. Their great levels of stress in turn affect their bodies in certain harmful ways. As two poverty scholars note, “It’s not just that poverty-induced stress is mentally taxing. If it’s experienced early enough in childhood, it can in fact get ‘under the skin’ and change the way in which the body copes with the environment and the way in which the brain develops. These deep, enduring, and sometimes irreversible physiological changes are the very human price of running a high-poverty society” (Grusky & Wimer, 2011, p. 2).

One way poverty gets “under children’s skin” is as follows (Evans, et. al., 2011). Poor children’s high levels of stress produce unusually high levels of stress hormones such as cortisol and higher levels of blood pressure. Because these high levels impair their neural development, their memory and language development skills suffer. This result in turn affects their behavior and learning potential. For other physiological reasons, high levels of stress also affect the immune system, so that poor children are more likely to develop various illnesses during childhood and to have high blood pressure and other health problems when they grow older, and cause other biological changes that make poor children more likely to end up being obese and to have drug and alcohol problems.

The policy implications of the scientific research on childhood poverty are clear. As public health scholar Jack P. Shonkoff (Shonkoff, 2011) explains, “Viewing this scientific evidence within a biodevelopmental framework points to the particular importance of addressing the needs of our most disadvantaged children at the earliest ages.” Duncan and Magnuson (Duncan & Magnuson, 2011) agree that “greater policy attention should be given to remediating situations involving deep and persistent poverty occurring early in childhood.” To reduce poverty’s harmful physiological effects on children, Skonkoff advocates efforts to promote strong, stable relationships among all members of poor families; to improve the quality of the home and neighborhood physical environments in which poor children grow; and to improve the nutrition of poor children. Duncan and Magnuson call for more generous income transfers to poor families with young children and note that many European democracies provide many kinds of support to such families. The recent scientific evidence on early childhood poverty underscores the importance of doing everything possible to reduce the harmful effects of poverty during the first few years of life.

Health, Illness, and Medical Care

The poor are also more likely to have many kinds of health problems, including infant mortality, earlier adulthood mortality, and mental illness, and they are also more likely to receive inadequate medical care. Poor children are more likely to have inadequate nutrition and, partly for this reason, to suffer health, behavioral, and cognitive problems. These problems in turn impair their ability to do well in school and land stable employment as adults, helping to ensure that poverty will persist across generations. Many poor people are uninsured or underinsured, at least until the US health-care reform legislation of 2010 takes full effect a few years from now, and many have to visit health clinics that are overcrowded and understaffed.

As Chapter 12 “Work and the Economy” discusses, it is unclear how much of poor people’s worse health stems from their lack of money and lack of good health care versus their own behavior such as smoking and eating unhealthy diets. Regardless of the exact reasons, however, the fact remains that poor health is a major consequence of poverty. According to recent research, this fact means that poverty is responsible for almost 150,000 deaths annually, a figure about equal to the number of deaths from lung cancer (Bakalar, 2011).

Poor children typically go to rundown schools with inadequate facilities where they receive inadequate schooling. They are much less likely than wealthier children to graduate from high school or to go to college. Their lack of education in turn restricts them and their own children to poverty, once again helping to ensure a vicious cycle of continuing poverty across generations. As Chapter 10 “The Changing Family” explains, scholars debate whether the poor school performance of poor children stems more from the inadequacy of their schools and schooling versus their own poverty. Regardless of exactly why poor children are more likely to do poorly in school and to have low educational attainment, these educational problems are another major consequence of poverty.

Housing and Homelessness

The poor are, not surprisingly, more likely to be homeless than the nonpoor but also more likely to live in dilapidated housing and unable to buy their own homes. Many poor families spend more than half their income on rent, and they tend to live in poor neighborhoods that lack job opportunities, good schools, and other features of modern life that wealthier people take for granted. The lack of adequate housing for the poor remains a major national problem. Even worse is outright homelessness. An estimated 1.6 million people, including more than 300,000 children, are homeless at least part of the year (Lee, et. al., 2010).

Crime and Victimization

As Chapter 7 “Alcohol and Other Drugs” discusses, poor (and near poor) people account for the bulk of our street crime (homicide, robbery, burglary, etc.), and they also account for the bulk of victims of street crime. That chapter will outline several reasons for this dual connection between poverty and street crime, but they include the deep frustration and stress of living in poverty and the fact that many poor people live in high-crime neighborhoods. In such neighborhoods, children are more likely to grow up under the influence of older peers who are already in gangs or otherwise committing crime, and people of any age are more likely to become crime victims. Moreover, because poor and near-poor people are more likely to commit street crime, they also comprise most of the people arrested for street crimes, convicted of street crime, and imprisoned for street crime. Most of the more than 2 million people now in the nation’s prisons and jails come from poor or near-poor backgrounds. Criminal behavior and criminal victimization, then, are other major consequences of poverty.

Lessons from Other Societies

Poverty and Poverty Policy in Other Western Democracies

To compare international poverty rates, scholars commonly use a measure of the percentage of households in a nation that receive less than half of the nation’s median household income after taxes and cash transfers from the government. In data from the late 2000s, 17.3 percent of US households lived in poverty as defined by this measure. By comparison, other Western democracies had the rates depicted in the figure that follows. The average poverty rate of the nations in the figure excluding the United States is 9.5 percent. The US rate is thus almost twice as high as the average for all the other democracies.

This graph illustrates the poverty rates in western democracies (i.e., the percentage of persons living with less than half of the median household income) as of the late 2000s

Source: Data from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2011). Society at a glance 2011: OECD social indicators. Retrieved July 23, 2011, from http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/soc_glance-2011-en/06/02/index.html;jsessionid=erdqhbpb203ea.epsilon?contentType=&itemId=/content/chapter/soc_glance-2011-17-en&containerItemId=/content/se .

Why is there so much more poverty in the United States than in its Western counterparts? Several differences between the United States and the other nations stand out (Brady, 2009; Russell, 2011). First, other Western nations have higher minimum wages and stronger labor unions than the United States has, and these lead to incomes that help push people above poverty. Second, these other nations spend a much greater proportion of their gross domestic product on social expenditures (income support and social services such as child-care subsidies and housing allowances) than does the United States. As sociologist John Iceland (Iceland, 2006) notes, “Such countries often invest heavily in both universal benefits, such as maternity leave, child care, and medical care, and in promoting work among [poor] families…The United States, in comparison with other advanced nations, lacks national health insurance, provides less publicly supported housing, and spends less on job training and job creation.” Block and colleagues agree: “These other countries all take a more comprehensive government approach to combating poverty, and they assume that it is caused by economic and structural factors rather than bad behavior” (Block et, al., 2006).

The experience of the United Kingdom provides a striking contrast between the effectiveness of the expansive approach used in other wealthy democracies and the inadequacy of the American approach. In 1994, about 30 percent of British children lived in poverty; by 2009, that figure had fallen by more than half to 12 percent. Meanwhile, the US 2009 child poverty rate, was almost 21 percent.

Britain used three strategies to reduce its child poverty rate and to help poor children and their families in other ways. First, it induced more poor parents to work through a series of new measures, including a national minimum wage higher than its US counterpart and various tax savings for low-income workers. Because of these measures, the percentage of single parents who worked rose from 45 percent in 1997 to 57 percent in 2008. Second, Britain increased child welfare benefits regardless of whether a parent worked. Third, it increased paid maternity leave from four months to nine months, implemented two weeks of paid paternity leave, established universal preschool (which both helps children’s cognitive abilities and makes it easier for parents to afford to work), increased child-care aid, and made it possible for parents of young children to adjust their working hours to their parental responsibilities (Waldfogel, 2010). While the British child poverty rate fell dramatically because of these strategies, the US child poverty rate stagnated.

In short, the United States has so much more poverty than other democracies in part because it spends so much less than they do on helping the poor. The United States certainly has the wealth to follow their example, but it has chosen not to do so, and a high poverty rate is the unfortunate result. As the Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman (2006, p. A25) summarizes this lesson, “Government truly can be a force for good. Decades of propaganda have conditioned many Americans to assume that government is always incompetent…But the [British experience has] shown that a government that seriously tries to reduce poverty can achieve a lot.”

Key Takeaways

• Poor people are more likely to have several kinds of family problems, including divorce and family conflict.
• Poor people are more likely to have several kinds of health problems.
• Children growing up in poverty are less likely to graduate high school or go to college, and they are more likely to commit street crime.

For Your Review

• Write a brief essay that summarizes the consequences of poverty.
• Why do you think poor children are more likely to develop health problems?

Bakalar, N. (2011, July 4). Researchers link deaths to social ills. New York Times , p. D5.

Block, F., Korteweg, A. C., & Woodward, K. (2006). The compassion gap in American poverty policy. Contexts, 5 (2), 14–20.

Brady, D. (2009). Rich democracies, poor people: How politics explain poverty . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Duncan, G. J., & Magnuson, K. (2011, winter). The long reach of early childhood poverty. Pathways: A Magazine on Poverty, Inequality, and Social Policy , 22–27.

Evans, G. W., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Klebanov, P. K. (2011, winter). Stressing out the poor: Chronic physiological stress and the income-achievement gap. Pathways: A Magazine on Poverty, Inequality, and Social Policy , 16–21.

Grusky, D., & Wimer, C.(Eds.). (2011, winter). Editors’ note. Pathways: A Magazine on Poverty, Inequality, and Social Policy , 2.

Iceland, J. (2006). Poverty in America: A handbook . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Krugman, P. (Krugman, 2006). Helping the poor, the British way. New York Times , p. A25.

Lee, B., Tyler, K. A., & Wright, J. D. ( 2010). The new homelessness revisited. Annual Review of Sociology, 36 , 501–521.

Lindsey, D. (2009). Child poverty and inequality: Securing a better future for America’s children . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Moore, K. A., Redd, Z., Burkhauser, M., Mbawa, K., & Collins, A. (2009). Children in poverty: Trends, consequences, and policy options . Washington, DC: Child Trends. Retrieved from http://www.childtrends.org/Files//Child_Trends-2009_04_07_RB_ChildreninPoverty.pdf .

Ratcliffe, C., & McKernan, S.-M. (2010). Childhood poverty persistence: Facts and consequences . Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.

Russell, J. W. ( 2011). Double standard: Social policy in Europe and the United States (2nd ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Sanders, L. (2011). Neuroscience exposes pernicious effects of poverty. Science News, 179 (3), 32.

Shonkoff, J. P. (2011, winter). Building a foundation for prosperity on the science of early childhood development. Pathways: A Magazine on Poverty, Inequality, and Social Policy , 10–14.

Waldfogel, J. (2010). Britain’s war on poverty . New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

Social Problems Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

390 Poverty Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

• 📑 Aspects to Cover in a Poverty Essay

Students who learn economics, politics, and social sciences are often required to write a poverty essay as part of their course. While everyone understands the importance of this topic, it can be hard to decide what to write about. Read this post to find out the aspects that you should cover in your essay on poverty.

🏆 Best Poverty Topics & Free Essay Examples

👍 powerful topics on poverty and inequality, 🎓 simple & easy topics related to poverty, 📌 interesting poverty essay examples, ⭐ strong poverty-related topics, 🥇 unique poverty topics for argumentative essay, ❓ research questions about poverty.

Topics related to poverty and inequality might seem too broad. There are so many facts, factors, and aspects you should take into consideration. However, we all know that narrowing down a topic is one of the crucial steps when working on an outline and thesis statement. You should be specific enough to select the right arguments for your argumentative essay or dissertation. Below, you will find some aspects to include in your poverty essay.

Poverty Statistics

First of all, it would be beneficial to include some background information on the issue. Statistics on poverty in your country or state can help you to paint a picture of the problem. Look for official reports on poverty and socioeconomic welfare, which can be found on government websites. While you are writing this section, consider the following:

• What is the overall level of poverty in your country or state?
• Has the prevalence of poverty changed over time? If yes, how and why?
• Are there any groups or communities where poverty is more prevalent than in the general population? What are they?

Causes of Poverty

If you look at poverty essay titles, the causes of poverty are a popular theme among students. While some people may think that poverty occurs because people are lazy and don’t want to work hard, the problem is much more important than that. Research books and scholarly journal articles on the subject with these questions in mind:

• Why do some groups of people experience poverty more often than others?
• What are the historical causes of poverty in your country?
• How is poverty related to other social issues, such as discrimination, immigration, and crime?
• How do businesses promote or reduce poverty in the community?

Consequences of Poverty

Many poverty essay examples also consider the consequences of poverty for individuals and communities. This theme is particularly important if you study social sciences or politics. Here are some questions that may give you ideas for this section:

• How is the psychological well-being of individuals affected by poverty?
• How is poverty connected to crime and substance abuse?
• How does poverty affect individuals’ access to high-quality medical care and education?
• What is the relationship between poverty and world hunger?

Government Policies

Governments of most countries have policies in place to reduce poverty and help those in need. In your essay, you may address the policies used in your state or country or compare several different governments in terms of their approaches to poverty. Here is what you should think about:

• What are some examples of legislation aimed at reducing poverty?
• Do laws on minimum wage help to prevent and decrease poverty? Why or why not?
• How do governments help people who are poor to achieve higher levels of social welfare?
• Should governments provide financial assistance to those in need? Why or why not?

Solutions to Poverty

Solutions to poverty are among the most popular poverty essay topics, and you will surely find many sample papers and articles on this subject. This is because poverty is a global issue that must be solved to facilitate social development. Considering these questions in your poverty essay conclusion or main body will help you in getting an A:

• What programs or policies proved to be effective in reducing poverty locally?
• Is there a global solution to poverty that would be equally effective in all countries?
• How can society facilitate the reduction of poverty?
• What solutions would you recommend to decrease and prevent poverty?

Covering a few of these aspects in your essay will help you demonstrate the in-depth understanding and analysis required to earn a high mark. Before you start writing, have a look around our website for more essay titles, tips, and interesting topics!

• Poverty Research Proposal To justify this, the recent and most current statistics from the Census Bureau shows that the level and rate of poverty in USA is increasing, with minority ethnic groups being the most disadvantaged.
• What Causes Poverty in the World One of the major factors that have contributed to poverty in given areas of the world is overpopulation. Environmental degradation in many parts of the world has led to the increase of poverty in the […]
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• Poverty: A Sociological Imagination Perspective I was raised in a nuclear family, where my mum was a housewife, and my father worked in a local hog farm as the overall manager.
• “The Singer Solution to World Poverty” by Peter Singer The article “The Singer Solution to World Poverty” by author Peter Singer attempts to provide a workable solution to the world poverty problem.
• Poverty in the World In this paper, we will be looking at the situation of poverty in the world, its causes and the efforts of the international organizations to manage the same.
• Max Weber’s Thoughts on Poverty Weber has contributed to the exploration of the origins of poverty and the impact of religions on the attitude to it.
• Poverty in India and China India’s slow rate of poverty reduction compared to China is due to the differences in their approach to the economy. Improving the living conditions and general well being of the people is not only the […]
• Consumerism: Affecting Families Living in Poverty in the United States Hence, leading to the arising of consumerism protection acts and policies designed to protect consumers from dishonest sellers and producers, which indicates the high degree of consumer’s ignorance, and hence failure to make decisions of […]
• The End of Poverty Philippe Diaz’s documentary, The End of Poverty, is a piece that attempts to dissect the causes of the huge economic inequalities that exist between countries in the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere.
• Poverty Effects on Child Development and Schooling To help children from low-income families cope with poverty, interventions touching in the child’s development and educational outcomes are essential. Those programs campaign against the effects of poverty among children by providing basic nutritional, academic, […]
• Analysis of Theodore Dalrymple’s “What Is Poverty?” With ethical arguments from Burnor, it can be argued that Dalrymple’s statements are shallow and based on his values and not the experience of those he is judging.
• Relationship Between Crime Rates and Poverty This shows that the strength of the relationship between the crime index and people living below the line of poverty is.427.
• Poverty Areas and Effects on Juvenile Delinquency The desire to live a better life contributes to the youths engaging in crimes, thus the increase in cases of juvenile delinquencies amid low-income families. The studies indicate that the fear of poverty is the […]
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• Poverty in Africa These pictures have been published online to show the world the gravity of the poverty situation in the African continent. The pictures represent the suffering of majority of the African people as a result of […]
• Poverty and the Environment The human population affects the environment negatively due to poverty resulting to environmental degradation and a cycle of poverty. Poverty and the environment are interlinked as poverty leads to degradation of the environment.
• The Problem of Poverty in Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” To see the situation from the perspective of its social significance, it is necessary to refer to Mills’ concept of sociological imagination and to the division of problems and issues into personal and social ones.
• Community Work: Helping People in Poverty The first project would be water project since you find that in most villages water is a problem, hence $100 would go to establishing this project and it’s out of these water then the women […]
• The Singer Solution to World Poverty: Arguments Against The article compares the lives of people in the developed world represented by America and that of developing world represented by Brazil; It is about a school teacher who sells a young boy for adoption […]
• Children Living in Poverty and Education The presence of real subjects like children is a benefit for the future of the nation and a free education option for poor families to learn something new and even use it if their children […]
• Cause and Effect of Poverty For example, the disparities in income and wealth are considered as a sign of poverty since the state is related to issues of scarcity and allocation of resources and influence.
• Poverty Through a Sociological Lens Poverty-stricken areas, such as slums, rural villages, and places hit by disasters, lack the required economic activities to improve the employment and wealth status of the people.
• Poverty and Global Food Crisis: Food and Agriculture Model Her innovative approach to the issue was to measure food shortages in calories as opposed to the traditional method of measuring in pounds and stones.
• Analysis of a Social Problem: Poverty Furthermore, the World Bank predicts that both the number of people and the percentage of the population living in extreme poverty will increase in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak.
• The Myth of the Culture of Poverty Unfortunately, rather all of the stereotypes regarding poor people are widespread in many societies and this has served to further increase the problem of generational poverty. Poor people are regarded to be in the state […]
• Poverty and Its Effects on Childhood Education The foremost strength of Guo’s study is that in it, author succeeded with substantiating the full soundness of an idea that children’s exposure to poverty cannot possibly be thought of as only the factor that […]
• Political Economy: Relationship Between Poverty, Inequality, and Nationalism The prevalence of nationalism leads to changes in the education system, as the government tries to justify the superiority of the country by altering the curriculum.
• Global Poverty: Famine, Affluence, and Morality In the article Famine, Affluence, and Morality, Michael Slote contends that rich people have a moral obligation to contribute more to charities.
• “The Hidden Reason for Poverty…” by Haugen It is also noteworthy that some groups of people are specifically vulnerable and join the arrays of those living in poverty.
• Poverty Policy Recommendations Different leaders have considered several policies and initiatives in the past to tackle the problem of poverty and empower more people to lead better lives.
• Poverty and Diseases A usual line of reasoning would be that low income is the main cause of health-related problems among vulnerable individuals. Such results that the relationship between mental health and poverty is, in fact, straightforward.
• Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development The research focuses on the causes of poverty and the benefits of poverty alleviation in achieving sustainable development. One of the causes of poverty is discrimination and social inequality.
• Social Issues of Families in Poverty With the tightened budget, parents of the families living in poverty struggle to make ends meet, and in the course of their struggles, they experience many stresses and depressions.
• Third World Countries and the Barriers Stopping Them to Escape Poverty The phrase Third World was initially used in the Cold War period to represent those countries that were neither on the West NATO nations referred to as the first world countries, nor on the East-Communist […]
• The Connection Between Poverty and Mental Health Problems The daily struggle to earn a daily bread takes a toll on an individual mental health and contributes to mental health problem.
• Poverty Simulation Reflection and Its Influence on Life Something that stood out to me during the process is probably the tremendous emotional and psychological impact of poverty on a person’s wellbeing.
• Poverty in Bambara’s The Lesson and Danticat’s A Wall of Fire Rising It is important to note the fact that culture-based poverty due to discrimination of the past or political ineffectiveness of the nation can have a profound ramification in the lives of its victims.
• Inequality and Poverty Relationship To begin with, it is necessary to define the concepts of poverty and inequality. As of inequality, it is the difference in access to income, power, education, and whatever.
• Poverty and Development Into the 21st Century The choices of citizens in the west influence the consumer, as well as political behaviors of the consumers and voters in the developing regions.
• Is Poverty a Choice or a Generational Curse? The assumption that poverty is a choice persists in public attitudes and allows policy-makers to absolve themselves of any responsibility for ensuring the well-being of the lower socioeconomic stratum of society.
• Children in Poverty in Kampong Ayer, Brunei Part of the reason is likely malnutrition that results from the eating or consumption patterns of the families and also dependency on the children to help out with the family or house chores.
• “The End of Poverty” by Phillipe Diaz In the film End of Poverty, the filmmaker tries to unravel the mystery behind poverty in the world. The film is arranged in such a way that the author has persuasively argued his case that […]
• Poverty, Government and Unequal Distribution of Wealth in Philippines The author of the book Poverty And The Critical Security Agenda, Eadie, added: Quantitative analyses of poverty have become more sophisticated over the years to be sure, yet remain problematic and in certain ways rooted […]
• Poverty, Inequality and Social Policy Understanding The roots of inequality can relate to both welfare and some other factors, for example, the judiciary. Therefore, the principle of equality is violated, and social norms cannot be considered to be respected.
• The Rise of Poverty in the US The main issue that is portrayed in the article is the presence of the invisible poor and the homeless poor in the US.
• Concept of Poverty The main difference between this definition and other definitions of poverty highlighted in this paper is the broad understanding of the concept.
• Social Issues; Crime and Poverty in Camden This has threatened the social security and peaceful coexistence of the people in the community. The larger the differences between the poor and the rich, the high are the chances of crime.
• We Can Stop Poverty in Ghana Today One of the main disadvantages of the document is that the problem of poverty is not considered separately, but only as a part of other economic and social problems.
• Environmental Degradation and Poverty It is however important to understand the causes of the environmental degradation and the ways to reduce them, which will promote the improvement of the environmental quality.
• Poverty in the Bronx: Negative Effects of Poverty South Bronx is strictly the southwestern part of the borough of Bronx and Bronx is the only borough in New York city in the mainland.
• Poverty in Urban Areas The main reason for escalation of the problem of poverty is urban areas is because the intricate problems of urban poverty are considered too small to attract big policies.
• Health, Poverty, and Social Equity: The Global Response to the Ebola Outbreak Canada and Australia, as well as several countries in the Middle East and Africa, were the most active proponents of this ban, halting the movements for both people and goods from states affected by the […]
• Tourism Contribution to Poverty Reduction Managers usually make targeting errors such as poor delivery of tourism benefits to the poor and accruing tourism benefit to the rich in the society.
• Social Business Scope in Alleviating Poverty Instead of charity work, social business aims at creating a mechanism in which the poor may be helped in a sustainable manner in that the social business makes profits just like conventional businesses, but the […]
• Global Poverty: The Ethical Dilemma Unfortunately, a significant obstacle to such global reforms is that many economic systems are based on the concept of inequality and exploitation.
• Is Globalization Reducing Poverty and Inequality? & How to Judge Globalism The article Is Globalization Reducing Poverty and Inequality by Robert Hunter Wade explores the phenomenon of globalization and its influence on the poverty and inequality ratios all over the world.
• Poverty in Orwell’s “Down and Out in Paris and London” The fact that the structure of society is discussed is especially interesting, and it is suggested that opinions of people that live in poverty are not acknowledged most of the time.
• America’s Shame: How Can Education Eradicate Poverty The primary focus of the article was global poverty, the flaws in the educational system, as well as the U.S.government’s role in resolving the problem.
• How Poverty Contributes to Poor Heath The results show that poverty is the main cause of poor health. The study was purposed to assess the effect of poverty in determining the health status of households.
• Global Poverty Project: A Beacon of Hope in the Fight Against Extreme Poverty The organization works with partners worldwide to increase awareness and understanding of global poverty and inspire people to take action to end it.
• The Causes of an Increase in Poverty in Atlanta, Georgia The key causes of the high poverty rise in the city include housing policies and instabilities, the lack of transit services and public transportation infrastructure in suburban areas, and childhood poverty.
• Thistle Farms: Help for Women Who Are Affected by Poverty As I said in the beginning, millions of women need help and assistance from the community to overcome poverty and heal emotional wounds caused by abuse. You can purchase a variety of its home and […]
• Median Household Incomes and Poverty Levels The patterns of poverty in the Denver urban area show that rates are higher in the inner suburb and the core city and lower in the outer suburb.
• Poverty: The American Challenge One of the main problems in the world is the problem of poverty, which means the inability to provide the simplest and most affordable living conditions for most people in a given country.
• The Poverty Issue From a Sociological Perspective The core of the perspective is the idea that poverty is a system in which multiple elements are intertwined and create outcomes linked to financial deficits.
• Saving the Planet by Solving Poverty The data is there to make the necessary links, which are needed when it comes to the economic variations and inadequate environmental impacts of climate change can be distinguished on a worldwide scale.
• Anti-Poverty Programs From the Federal Government The programs provide financial assistance to low-income individuals and families to cover basic needs like housing and food. The anti-poverty programs that have been most effective in reducing poverty rates in the United States are […]
• Rural Development, Economic Inequality and Poverty The percentage of the rural population is lower for developed countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. Thus, the objective of the proposal is to determine how the inhabitants of the country in […]
• Global Poverty: Ways of Combating For example, one of such initiatives is social assistance and social protection programs, which ensure the safety and creation of various labor programs that will help increase the number of the working population.
• Poverty and Homelessness as a Global Social Problem What makes the task of defining poverty particularly difficult is the discrepancy in the distribution of social capital and, therefore, the resulting differences in the understanding of what constitutes poverty, particularly, where the line should […]
• Poverty: Aspects of Needs Assessment The target neighborhood and population for the following analysis are women of reproductive age, defined as 15 to 49 years, in Elmhurst and Corona, Queens. 2, and the percentage of births to women aged over […]
• What Is Poverty in the United States? Estimates of the amount of income required to meet necessities serve as the foundation for both the official and supplemental poverty measurements.
• The Caribbean Culture: Energy Security and Poverty Issues Globally, Latin American and the Caribbean also has the most expensive energy products and services because of fuel deprivation in the Caribbean and the Pacific regions.
• Poverty: The Main Causes and Factors Because of the constant process of societal development, the concept of poverty changes rapidly, adapting to the new standards of modern human life.
• How to Overcome Poverty and Discrimination As such, to give a chance to the “defeated” children and save their lives, as Alexie puts it, society itself must change the rules so that everyone can have access to this ticket to success. […]
• Poverty and Homelessness in American Society It is connected with social segregation, stigmatization, and the inability of the person to improve their conditions of life. The problem of affordable housing and poverty among older adults is another problem that leads to […]
• Private Sector’s Role in Poverty Alleviation in Asia The ambition of Asia to become the fastest-growing economic region worldwide has led to a rapid rise of enterprises in the private sector.
• Connection of Poverty and Education The economy of the United States has been improving due to the efforts that have been made to ensure that poverty will not prevent individuals and families from having access to decent education.
• The Opportunity for All Program: Poverty Reduction The limiting factors of the program may be the actions of the population itself, which will not participate in the employment program because of the realized benefits.
• Early Childhood Financial Support and Poverty The mentioned problem is a direct example of such a correlation: the general poverty level and the well-being of adults are connected with the early children’s material support.
• Discussion: Poverty and Healthcare One of the research questions necessary to evaluate this issue is “How do ethical theories apply to the issue?” Another critical research question worth exploring is “Which cultural values and norms influence the problem?” These […]
• Explosive Growth of Poverty in America The three richest Americans now own 250 billion USD, approximately the same amount of combined wealth as the bottom 50 percent of the country. Wealth inequality is a disturbing issue that needs to be at […]
• The Poverty and Education Quality Relationship Although the number of people living under the poverty threshold has decreased in the last 30 years, more than 800,000,000 people still have to live with insufficient money and a lack of food, water, and […]
• The Problems of Poverty and Hunger Subsequently, the cause in this case serves as a path to a solution – more social programs are needed, and wealthy citizens should be encouraged to become beneficiaries for the hungry.
• “Life on a Shoestring – American Kids Living in Poverty” by Claycomb Life on a Shoestring – American Kids Living in Poverty highlights the widening disparity between the poor and the wealthy in America and how the economic systems are set up to benefit the rich and […]
• Decreasing Poverty With College Enrollment Program In order to achieve that, it is necessary, first and foremost, to increase the high school students’ awareness of the financial aid programs, possibilities of dual enrollment, and the overall reality of higher education.
• Poverty in Rural and Urban Areas My main focus is on articles explaining the sources of poverty in rural and urban areas and the key difference between the two.
• Reducing Poverty in the North Miami Beach Community The proposed intervention program will focus on the students in the last semester of the 9th and 10th grades and the first semester of the 11th and 12th grades attending the client schools.
• Food Banks Board Members and Cycle of Poverty What this suggests is that a large portion of the leadership within these collectives aim to provide assistance and food but not to challenge the current system that fosters the related issues of poverty, unemployment, […]
• Poverty as a Social Problem in Burundi The rationale for studying poverty as a social problem in Burundi is that it will help to combat poverty through the advocacy plan at the end of this paper.
• Poverty: Subsidizing Programs Subsidizing programs are considered welfare and net initiatives that the government takes to aid low-income families and individuals affected by poverty.
• The Problem of Poverty in Chad Thus, the study of the causes of poverty in the Republic of Chad will help to form a complete understanding of the problem under study and find the most effective ways to solve it.
• “Poverty, Toxic Stress, and Education…” Study by Kelly & Li Kelly and Li are concerned with the lack of research about poverty and toxic stress affecting the neurodevelopment of preterm children.
• Poverty in “A Modest Proposal” by Swift The high number of children born to poor families presents significant problems for a country.”A Modest Proposal” is a satirical essay by Jonathan Swift that proposes a solution to the challenge facing the kingdom.
• Life Below the Poverty Line in the US The major problem with poverty in the US is that the number of people living below the poverty threshold is gradually increasing despite the economic growth of the country. SNAP is not considered to be […]
• The Relationship Between Single-Parent Households and Poverty The given literature review will primarily focus on the theoretical and empirical aspects of the relationship between single-parent households and poverty, as well as the implications of the latter on mental health issues, such as […]
• Poverty and Its Effect on Adult Health Poverty in the UK is currently above the world average, as more than 18% of the population lives in poverty. In 2020, 7% of the UK population lived in extreme poverty and 11% lived in […]
• Child Poverty in the United States The causes of child poverty in the United States cannot be separated from the grounds of adult poverty. Thus, it is essential to take care of the well-being of children living in poverty.
• Poverty in New York City, and Its Reasons The poverty rate for seniors in New York is twice the poverty rate in the United States. New York City’s blacks and Hispanics have a much higher poverty rate than whites and Asians in the […]
• Juvenile Violent Crime and Children Below Poverty The effect of this trend is that the number of children below poverty will continue to be subjected to the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
• Poverty and Homelessness as Social Problem The qualifications will include a recommendation from the community to ensure that the person is open to help and willing to be involved in the neighborhood of Non-Return.
• Discussion of the Problem of the Poverty To help prevent homelessness for the woman in question and her children, I think it would be essential to provide mental support for her not to turn to alcohol and drugs as a coping mechanism.
• Poverty Effects and How They Are Handled Quality jobs will provide income to the younger people and women in the community. The focus on developing and facilitating small and medium-sized enterprises is a great strategy but more needs to be done in […]
• Feminization of Poverty and Governments’ Role in Solving the Problem However, women form the greatest percentage of the poor, and the problem continues to spread. Furthermore, the public supports available are inaccessible and inadequate to cater for women’s needs.
• Free-Trade Policies and Poverty Level in Bangladesh The purpose of this paper is to examine the way in which the end of the quota system and introduction of a free-trade system for the garment industry in Bangladesh has impacted on poverty in […]
• Poverty and Risks Associated With Poverty Adolescents that are at risk of being malnourished can be consulted about the existing programs that provide free food and meals to families in poverty.
• Poverty and Inequality Reduction Strategies Thus, comprehending the causes of poverty and inequalities, understanding the role of globalization, and learning various theoretical arguments can lead to the establishment of appropriate policy recommendations.
• International Aid – Poverty Inc This film, the research on the impact of aid on the states receiving it, and the economic outcomes of such actions suggest that aid is a part of the problem and not a solution to […]
• Poverty Effects on American Children and Adolescents The extent to which poor financial status influences the wellbeing of the young children and adolescents is alarming and needs immediate response from the community.
• Progress and Poverty Book by Henry George George wrote the book following his recognition that poverty is the central puzzle of the 20th century. Thus, George’s allegation is inconsistent with nature because the number of living organisms can increase to the extent […]
• Vicious Circle of Poverty in Brazil The vicious circle of poverty is “a circular constellation of forces that tend to act and react on each other in such a way that the country in poverty maintains its poor state”.
• Global Education as the Key Tool for Addressing the Third World Poverty Issue Global education leads to improvements in the state economy and finances. Global education helps resolve the unemployment problem.
• Poverty, Partner Abuse, and Women’s Mental Health In general, the study aimed at investigating the interaction between poverty and the severity of abuse in women. The research question being studied in this article is how income intersects with partner violence and impacts […]
• Global Poverty and Ways to Overcome It These are some of the strategies, the subsequent application of which would significantly reduce the level of poverty around the world.
• Social Work at Acacia Network: Poverty and Inequality Around the 1980s, the number of older adults was significantly increasing in society; the local government of New York established a home for the aged and was named Acacia Network. The supporting staff may bond […]
• Poverty and Sex Trafficking: Qualitative Systematic Review The proposed research question is to learn how the phenomenon of poverty is connected to sex trafficking. To investigate the relationship between the phenomenon of poverty and sex trafficking.
• End of Extreme Poverty Importantly, the ability to remain the owners of a substantial amount of accumulated wealth is the primary motivation for such individuals.
• Poverty and Inequality in the US Despite the progress of civilization and the establishment of democratic values, in the modern United States, such problems as poverty and inequality persist, which is a significant social gap.
• The Problem of Poverty in the United States The problem of increasing poverty is one of the major political issues in the United States, which became especially agile after the appearance of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the difficult economic situation all over […]
• Poverty and Unemployment Due to Increased Taxation The government on its side defended the move while trying to justify the new measures’ benefits, a move that would still not benefit the country.
• Poverty as a Global Social Problem For example, the research shows that Kibera is the largest slum in the country, and this is where many people move to settle after losing hope of getting employed in towns.
• Researching the Problem of Poverty However, the rich people and the rich countries reduce poverty to some extent by providing jobs and markets to the poor, but the help is too little compared to the benefits they get thus accelerating […]
• Poverty, Social Class, and Intersectionality I prefer the structural approach to the issue as I believe the created structures are responsible for the existence of diverse types of oppression.
• Wealth and Poverty: The Christian Teaching on Wealth and Poverty To illustrate the gap between the world’s richest and the world’s poorest, a recent UN publication reported that the wealth of the three richest persons in the world is greater than the combined wealth of […]
• Guns Do Not Kill, Poverty Does It is widely accepted that stricter gun control policies are instrumental in alleviating the problem, as they are supposed to reduce the rate of firearm-related deaths, limiting gun access to individuals at-risk of participating in […]
• Poverty’s Effects on Delinquency The economic status of people determines their social class and the manner in which they get their basic needs. Seeing these things and the kind of life rich people lead motivates the poor to commit […]
• The Criminalization of Poverty in Canada In this regard, with a special focus on Canada, the objective of this essay is to investigate how public policy has transformed alongside the public perception of social welfare reform.
• The Issue of Vicious Circle of Poverty in Brazil The persistence of poverty, regardless of the many shocks that every state receives in the normal course of its survival, raises the feeling that underdevelopment is a condition of equilibrium and that there are pressures […]
• Community Health Needs: Poverty Generally, the higher the level of poverty, the worse the diet, and hence the higher the chances of developing diabetes. Consequently, a considerable disparity in the prevalence of diabetes occurs between communities with high levels […]
• “Poverty, Race, and the Contexts of Achievement” by Maryah Stella Fram et al. The article “Poverty, race, and the contexts of achievement: examining the educational experience of children in the U.S. Multilevel models were then applied in the analyses of how children varied in their reading scores depending […]
• Reflective Analysis of Poverty It can be further classified into absolute poverty where the affected do not have the capability to make ends meet, and relative poverty which refer to the circumstances under which the afflicted do not have […]
• Microeconomic Perspective on Poverty Evolution in Pakistan The periodic spike in poverty levels, notwithstanding economic growth, implies incongruous policy functionality in relation to drivers of poverty and the subsequent failure to improve the indicators.
• The Impact of Poverty on Children Under the Age of 11 The strengths of the Marxist views on poverty are in the structural approach to the problem. Overall, the Marxist theory offers a radical solution to the problem of child poverty.
• Dependency Theory and “The End of Poverty?” It is also reflected in the film “The End of Poverty?” narrating the circumstances of poor countries and their precondition. It started at the end of the fifteenth century and marked the beginning of the […]
• Poverty Reduction and Natural Assets Therefore, the most efficient way to increase the efficiency of agriculture and reduce its environmental impacts is ensuring the overall economic growth in the relevant region.
• Corporate Social Responsibility & Poverty Alleviation Researchers state that “preventing and managing the negative impacts of the core business on the poor” are essential indicators of the social responsibility of the company.
• Health, Poverty, and Social Equity: Indigenous Peoples of Canada Another problem that much of northern Canada’s Indigenous Peoples face is the availability of healthcare services and people’s inability to access medical help.
• The Problem of Childhood Poverty Unequal income distribution, adult poverty, government policies that exclude children and premature pregnancy are some of the items from the long list of childhood poverty causes. Before discussing the causes and effects of childhood poverty, […]
• Individualistic Concepts and Structural Views on Poverty in American Society The concepts presented in the book Poverty and power help to better understand the content of the article and the reasons for such a different attitude of people to the same problem.
• Poor Kids: The Impact of Poverty on Youth Nevertheless, the environment of constant limitations shapes the minds of children, their dreams and the paths they pursue in life, and, most importantly, what they make of themselves.
• Poverty: Causes and Effects on the Population and Country Thesis: There are a great number of factors and issues that lead a certain part of the population to live in poverty and the input that such great numbers of people could provide, would be […]
• The Internet and Poverty in Society The information that can be found on the web is a very useful resource but at the same time it is important to consider several things with the treatment and examination of the presented information.
• Poverty in Africa: Impact of the Economy Growth Rate Thus, a conclusion can be made that economic growth in Africa will result in the social stability of the local population.
• Poverty and Disrespect in “Coming of Age in Mississippi” by Anne Moody Life was not fair to a little Anne the chapters about her childhood are alike to a chain of unfortunate events that happened to her and her relatives.
• Vietnam’s Economic Growth and Poverty & Inequality A significant part of the population was active in employment, and this means that the numerous income-generating activities improved the economy of this country.
• Poverty and Disasters in the United States Focusing on the precaution measures and the drilling techniques that will help survive in case of a natural disaster is one of the most common tools for securing the population.
• Intro to Sociology: Poverty It is challenging to pinpoint the actual and not mythological reasons for the presence of poverty in America. The former can be summed up as a “culture of poverty”, which suggests that the poor see […]
• The Notion of “Poverty” Is a Key Word of a Modern Society As far as the countries of the Third World are deprived of these possibilities, their development is hampered and the problem of poverty has become a chronic disease of the society.
• The Problem of Poverty in Africa The major aim of the study is to identify the causes of poverty and propose best strategies that can help Africans come out of poverty.
• Poverty Sustainability in Sub-Saharan Countries: The Role of NGOs The position of research and statistics in undertaking social-counting work is not queried. It is after the research method is used in other tribulations of the charity that gaps emerge between management and research.
• The Effects of Poverty Within Criminal Justice The approach used in this study is deductive since the reasoning in the study proceeds from the general principle regarding the fact that poverty has a role to play in the administering of fairness in […]
• The Poverty Rates in the USA Poverty in the U. Officially the rate of poverty was at14.3%.
• Poverty in America: A Paradox Many people especially the young people living in other countries and more so in developed countries wish to immigrate to America instead of working hard to achieve the dream of better opportunities.
• Values and Ethics: Poverty in Canada The case study1 has indicated for instance, that the number of people living in poverty in 2003 is at 4. A group of individuals would therefore be granted the mandate to lead the others in […]
• War and Poverty Connection in Developing Countries The scholars claim that conflict and war in most nations have been found to exacerbate the rate of poverty in the affected nations.
• Poverty in United States. Facts and Causes Schwartz carried out a research which showed that in the United States, about 13-17|% of the individuals live below the federal poverty line at any one single time and poverty is one of the main […]
• Cultures and Prejudice: Poverty Factors For instance, if the two cultures had in the past interacted in a negative way, the poor culture directs all the blame to the well up culture.
• Poverty and Criminal Behavoiur Relation The level of accuracy that the data collected holds cannot be 100%; there is a level of error that affects the reliability of the data collected.
• Urban Relationship Between Poverty and Crime The areas with high poverty level in the US urban areas have the highest cases of crime but this is inadequate to justify that poverty is the cause of crime.
• The End of Poverty Possibility
• Poverty, Suburban Public School Violence and Solution
• Social and Economic Policy Program: Globalization, Growth, and Poverty
• Is Poverty From Developing Countries Imagined?
• How Gender and Race Structure Poverty and Inequality Connected?
• Poverty by Anarchism and Marxism Approaches
• Colonial Economy of America: Poverty, Slavery and Rich Plantations
• Poverty as a Great Social Problem and Its Causes
• Environmental Deterioration and Poverty in Kenya
• Management Issues: The Poverty Business
• Marginalization and Poverty of Rural Women
• Pockets of Poverty Mar the Great Promise of Canada
• Poverty. “How the Other Half Lives” by Jacob Riis
• The Underclass Poverty and Associated Social Problems
• Child Poverty in Toronto, Ontario
• Children’s Brain Function Affected by Poverty
• Poverty Issue in America Review
• Microeconomics. Poverty in America
• Poverty and Inequality in Modern World
• Poverty and Its Effects on Females
• Poverty and Its Effects on Women
• Poverty of America: Economic Assumptions
• Poverty as a General Problem
• Feminization of Poverty – A Grave Social Concern
• Global Poverty Dimensions and Alleviating Approaches
• Poverty Level in any Country
• Theories of Fertility. Economics Aspect and Poverty.
• The Cultural Construction of Poverty
• Poverty in the US: Causes and Measures
• Poverty Rates Issue in Alberta Analysis
• “Old Age Poverty” Study by Kwan & Walsh
• Phenomena of Poverty Review
• Development Economics: Poverty Traps in Africa
• Healthcare Development. Poverty in the 1800s
• Social Problem of Poverty in the United States
• Poverty and Hip-Hop: Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy”
• Globalization Issues and Impact on Poverty and Free Trade
• Anthropology: Culture of Poverty
• Poverty, Stratification and Gender Discrimination
• Teen Pregnancy Can Lead to Suicide and Poverty
• Poverty Around the World
• Poverty in Los Angeles
• “Rethinking the Sociological Measurement of Poverty” by Brady
• Poverty in the US: Essentials of Sociology
• Econometrics: Poverty, Unemployment, Household Income
• Religious Quotes on Poverty and Their Interpretations
• Poverty and Inequality in “Rich and Poor” by Peter Singer
• The Relation Between Poverty and Justice
• Canada and the Imposition of Poverty
• Poverty and Politics in “The Bottom Billion” by Collier
• The Impact of Poverty in African American Communities
• “Poverty and Joy: The Franciscan Tradition” by Short
• International Financial Institutions’ Poverty Reduction Strategy
• Social Study: Mamelodi Residents Living in Poverty
• Video Volunteers’ Interventions Against Poverty
• Poverty in American Single-Parent Families
• Single-Mother Poverty and Policies in the United States
• Poverty and Its Aspects in Historical Documents
• Economic Growth vs. Development: Dreze and Sen’s Analysis
• Poverty and Its Relative Definitions
• Poverty in America: An Ethical Dilemma
• Child Poverty and Academic Achievement Association
• Poverty as a Factor of Terrorist Recruitment
• Poverty Solution as a Political Issue in Australia
• Poverty: An Echo of Capitalism
• Breastfeeding Impact on Canadian Poverty Gaps
• Urban and Suburban Poverty in the United States
• Poverty and Child Health in the US and the UK
• Poverty Impact on Life Perception
• Energy Poverty Elimination in Developing Countries
• Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty
• Vietnamese Poverty and Productivity Increase
• Global Health Governance and Poverty
• Poverty Rates Among Whites and Blacks Americans
• Culture of Poverty in the “Park Avenue” Documentary
• Poverty in the US
• Poor Economics and Global Poverty
• Poverty as a Cause of the Sudanese Civil War
• “Halving Global Poverty” by Besley and Burges
• Do Poverty Traps Exist? Assessing the Evidence
• Poverty Reasons in Ancient Times and Nowadays
• American War on Poverty Throughout US History
• Poverty and Challenges in Finding Solutions
• Children and Poverty in “Born into Brothels” Documentary
• Poverty and Social Welfare in the United States
• Poverty in “A Theology of Liberation” by Gutierrez
• Poverty Reduction Among American Single Mothers
• The Relationship Between Poverty and Education
• Divorce Outcomes: Poverty and Instability
• African Poverty at the Millennium: Causes and Challenges
• Poverty Effect on Children
• Poverty and Education: School Funding Reinforces Inequality
• Global Poverty and the Endeavors of Addressing It
• Global Poverty Reduction: Economic Policy Recommendation
• Global Conflict and Poverty Crisis
• Poverty in the Novel “Snow” by Orhan Pamuk
• Profit From Organizing Tours to Poverty Areas
• Poverty: $2.00 a Day in America
• Detroit Poverty and “Focus Hope” Organization
• Poverty Controversy in the USA
• Poverty as the Deprivation of Capabilities
• Suburbanisation of Poverty in the USA
• The Solution to World Poverty by Peter Singer
• The Poverty Across the US Culture
• How Racial Segregation Contributes to Minority’s Poverty?
• Catholic Dealing With Poverty and Homelessness
• Human Capital and Poverty in Scottsdale
• Global Poverty Studies and Their Importance
• The World Bank and the Poverty of Reform
• Challenges of Social Integration: Poverty
• Globalization and the Issue of Poverty: Making the World a Better Place
• The Economic Effect of Issuing Food Stamps to Those in Poverty
• Business and Pollution Inequality in Poor States
• “Facing Poverty With a Rich Girl’s Habits” by Suki Kim
• What Should You Do? Poverty Issue
• Causes of Poverty Traps in an Economy, Its Results and Ways of Avoiding Them
• Millennium Development Goals – Energy and Poverty Solutions
• Sociological Indicators of Energy Poverty
• Energy and Poverty Solutions – Non-Traditional Cookstoves
• Energy and Poverty Solutions – World Bank
• How do Migration and Urbanization Bring About Urban Poverty in Developing Countries?
• Poverty and Domestic Violence
• The Rise of Extremist Groups, Disparity and Poverty
• Measuring Poverty and Social Exclusion in Australia
• Does Poverty Lead to Terrorism?
• “Urban and Rural Estimates of Poverty: Recent Advances in Spatial Microsimulation in Australia” by Tanton, R, Harding, A, and McNamara, J
• Importance of Foreign Aid in Poverty Reducing
• Hispanic Childhood Poverty in the United States
• How Poverty Affects Children Development?
• Why Is Poverty Important in Contemporary Security Studies?
• Millennium Development Goals in Kenya, Ivory Coast, Haiti, and Chad
• Development Is No Longer the Solution to Poverty
• Issues Underlying Global Poverty and Provision of Aid
• Films Comparison: “The Fields” by Roland Joffe and “Hotel Rwanda” by Terry George
• Poverty Prevalence in the United States
• Terrorism, Poverty and Financial Instability
• Global Poverty and Education
• Critical Analyses of the Climate of Fear Report From Southern Poverty Law Center
• How World Vision International Contributes to Poverty Reduction
• Global Poverty, Social Poverty and Education
• Global Poverty, Social Policy, and Education
• Poverty Reduction in Africa, Central America and Asia
• Does Parental Involvement and Poverty Affect Children’s Education and Their Overall Performance?
• African Poverty: To Aid, or Not to Aid
• Poverty Fighting in Saudi Arabia and in USA
• Technological Development in Trade and Its Impacts on Poverty
• Social Dynamics: The Southern Poverty Law Centre
• Property, Urban Poverty and Spatial Marginalization
• Rural Poverty in Indonesia
• Is Poverty of Poor Countries in Anyway Due to Wealth of the Rich?
• Poverty and Gender Violence in Congo
• Correlation Between Poverty and Obesity
• Fight Poverty, Fight Illiteracy in Mississippi Initiative
• Civil War and Poverty: “The Bottom Billion” by Paul Collier
• Analytical Research: Poverty in Thailand: Peculiarities and Perspectives
• Poverty Indicators in Developing Countries
• Poverty, Homelessness and Discrimination in Australia: The Case of the Aboriginal
• Africa’s Poverty: The Influence of Western States
• Susceptibility of Women and Aboriginal People to Poverty in Canada
• MDG Poverty Goals May Be Achieved, but Child Mortality Is Not Improving
• Microcredit: A Tool for Poverty Alleviation
• Impacts of Global Poverty Resistance
• Reducing Poverty: Unilever and Oxfam
• Poverty in the United States
• The Mothers Who Are Not Single: Striving to Avoid Poverty in Single-Parent Families
• Effect of Poverty on Children Cognitive and Learning Ability
• Sweatshops and Third World Poverty
• War on Poverty: Poverty Problem in US
• Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right and the UN Declaration of Human Rights
• War on Poverty in US
• The Causes of Poverty Concentration in the Modern World
• Poverty in Saudi Arabia
• Poverty as Capability Deprivation
• Poverty as a Peculiarity of the Economical Development
• Capitalism and Poverty
• The Problems of Poverty in the Modern World
• Poverty Among Women and Aboriginals
• On (Not) Getting by in America: Economic Order and Poverty in the U.S.
• The Singer Solution to World Poverty
• Poverty and Inequality in Jacksonian America
• Poverty in America Rural and Urban Difference (Education)
• What Is the Relationship Between Race, Poverty and Prison?
• Poverty in Russia During the Late Nineteenth Century
• Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty: Advantages of Microcredit
• Social Welfare Policy That Facilitates Reduction of Poverty and Inequality in the US
• Immigrant Status and Poverty: How Are They Linked?
• Effects of Poverty on Immigrant Children
• Poverty in Brazil
• The Problem of Immigrants Poverty in the US
• Why Poverty Rates are Higher Among Single Black Mothers
• Poverty and Its Impact on Global Health: Research Methodologies
• Poverty Concerns in Today’s Society
• Literature Study on the Modern Poverty Concerns
• Poverty and Wealth in “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara
• Peter Singer on Resolving the World Poverty
• Aspects of Global Poverty
• Concepts of Prenatal Drug Exposure vs. Poverty on Infants
• UN Summit in New York: Ending Global Poverty
• Why Has Poverty Increased in Zimbabwe?
• Should Private Donations Help Eliminate Child Poverty?
• Why Was Poverty Re-Discovered in Britain in the Late 1950s and Early 1960?
• Why Does Child Labour Persist With Declining Poverty?
• Why Are Child Poverty Rates Higher in Britain Than in Germany?
• What Are the Principles and Practices for Measuring Child Poverty in Rich Countries?
• Why Did Poverty Drop for the Elderly?
• What Is the Relationship Between Income Distribution and Poverty Reduction in the UK?
• What Are the Pros and Cons of Poverty in Latin America?
• Should Poverty Researchers Worry About Inequality?
• What Helps Households With Children in Leaving Poverty?
• What Is the Connection Between Poverty and Crime?
• Why Have Some Indian States Done Better Than Others at Reducing Rural Poverty?
• What Is the Relationship Between Lack of Education and Poverty?
• Why Are Child Poverty Rates So Persistently High in Spain?
• Trade Liberalisation and Poverty: What Are the Links?
• What Are Academic Programs Available for Youth in Poverty?
• What Are the Main Factors Contributing to the Rise in Poverty in Canada?
• Single-Mother Poverty: How Much Do Educational Differences in Single Motherhood Matter?
• What Are the Causes and Effects of Poverty in the United?
• Why Are Some Countries Poor?
• What Is the Link Between Globalization and Poverty?
• What Are the Factors That Influence Poverty Sociology?
• What Causes Poverty Within the United States Economy?
• What Is the Relationship Between Poverty and Obesity?
• Why Were Poverty Rates So High in the 1980s?
• With Exhaustible Resources, Can a Developing Country Escape From the Poverty Trap?
• Why Does Poverty Persist in Rural Ethiopia?
• Who Became Poor, Who Escaped Poverty, and Why?
• Social Norms Essay Ideas
• Drug Abuse Research Topics
• Juvenile Delinquency Essay Titles
• Segregation Research Topics
• Alcohol Abuse Paper Topics
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• Community Service Questions
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• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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The impact of poverty on early childhood

For most parents, bringing a baby into the world and nurturing a young child brings both great joy and intense love, but it also comes with many changes, and sometimes stress, pressure and anxiety. Those pressures and stresses are likely to be much greater for families who are struggling to make ends meet.  In the UK today, more than one in four families with a child under five are living in poverty .  

Experiencing poverty can cause harm at any age, but particularly for the youngest children. This is when the foundations for their physical, emotional and social development are being laid. A substantial body of research shows that family poverty is associated with and can cause poorer academic attainment and social and emotional development. Perhaps not surprisingly, poverty can be highly detrimental if it is persistent, experienced in the first three years of life and combined with other disadvantages. Given this, addressing early childhood poverty is a vital part of the jigsaw of support needed to enable young children to flourish.

The harm that poverty can inflict begins during pregnancy and is shaped by the health and well-being of parents and their socio-economic status. Gaps in development between disadvantaged and advantaged children emerge very early on. Poverty impacts are also not the same for everyone and are further compounded by inequalities in relation to parents’ ethnicity, health and economic status. By the time a child reaches 11 months there are gaps in communication and language skills, and by the age of three inequalities in children’s cognitive and social and emotional skills are evident. A large body of analysis shows how these early disadvantages can go on to affect children’s development in later life.

Importantly, this is not to say that economic disadvantage inevitably leads to poor long-term outcomes; other factors – family circumstances, wider family support, social networks and connections, educational resources and public services - all play a vital role and can mitigate the effects of poverty.

Younger children are more likely to be in poverty than other groups 

Poverty here is defined as not having enough material resources such as money, housing, or food to meet the minimum needs - both material and social – in today’s society. While there have been some key changes over the last two decades, there is one constant – children are markedly more likely to experience poverty than adults or pensioners and it is younger children who are most at risk .

This is the result of a combination of factors including the costs of children and that households with younger children are less likely to have two parents in full-time work parents. The latest figures show that there are some 4.2 million children living in poverty in the UK, a rise of 600,000 over the last decade.

Most worryingly deep poverty has been rising, particularly affecting lone parents, large families, and people living in families with a disabled person. The Runnymede Trust found that Black and minority ethnic people are currently 2.2 times more likely to be in deep poverty than white people, with Bangladeshi people more than three times more likely.  The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s report on Destitution in the UK 202 3 found that over 1 million children had experienced destitution at some point over 2022.

Poverty affects children’s material, social, educational and emotional well-being

Poverty affects young children’s experiences directly. Parents have less money to meet children’s material and social needs. The sharply rising costs of providing the basic essentials – food, warmth, lighting, housing costs, nappies, baby food, clothing - has created acute pressure for many families. Drawing on a survey of their service users, in 2022 Barnardo’s reported that 30% of parents said their child’s mental health had worsened in the previous four months, 16% said their child/ren had to share a bed with them or a sibling, and 30% were concerned about losing their home/being made homeless.

Recent research (Ruth Patrick et al. 2023 ) looked at the effects of benefit changes on larger families. It shows the many hardships that families are dealing with, the inability to meet their children’s needs and the stress and worry they feel as a result. But it also shows the resilience, strength and skills they employ to give their children the best possible life in the circumstances. Families spoke about the sheer amount of time it takes to manage on a very tight budget and its direct impact on children – from missing bath time to reading a bedtime story. This is affecting children’s educational outcomes. 95% of teachers surveyed by Kindred Squared believe that the cost-of-living crisis is going to impact school readiness next year.

Poverty gets under your skin; it takes a toll on the mental health of mothers, fathers, and wider family. The Family Stress Model, underpinned by research, shows the way in which economic stress - poverty, hardship, debt - creates psychological distress, lack of control and feelings of stigma. Not surprisingly, these stresses affect family relationships, both between parents and with children. Hardship, debt, deprivation and ‘feeling poor’ is linked to poorer maternal mental health and lower life satisfaction and this can make it more difficult to find the mental space to be an attentive and responsive parent. This in turn can affect young children’s social and emotional development and outcomes.

What can we do?

Explaining how poverty affects young children’s well-being and outcomes is important when it comes to developing effective responses: addressing poverty and hardship directly, supporting parents’, especially mothers’, mental health, and providing support for parenting.

The research also helps identify the protective factors that help to reduce the detrimental impact of poverty: wider family and neighbourhood support, good maternal and paternal mental health, access to high quality early education, warm parent-child interaction and financial and housing stability.

Early years professionals, health visitors, family support workers and many others are in the front line of the difficulties that families with young children are facing. They are responding to the legacy of the Covid pandemic and the rise in cost of living, working across service boundaries and in new ways, despite budgetary pressures.

Local services are working to meet the needs of families with young children in the round – including support for maternal mental health, parental conflict, parenting and the home learning environment. There are many voluntary initiatives, such as Save the Children’s Building Blocks, which combines giving grants to reduce the impact of material deprivation with supporting parents to play and learn with their children at home, initiatives to use local authority data to increase the take-up of benefit entitlements, and thebaby bank network, providing essential products and equipment as well as practical support for parents who are struggling.

Tackling early childhood poverty rests both on public policy which takes a holistic and joined up approach, as well as action at local level, whether that’s through local authorities, early years services in health and education, local businesses and community and voluntary initiatives.

In the Nuffield Foundation’s Changing Face of Early Childhood , we set out some core principles to address early childhood poverty including:

A multi-dimensional approach that reflects the range of socioeconomic risks and intersecting needs faced by families with young children.

Money matters - a financial bedrock for families with young children living on a low income, through improved social security benefits and access to employment, which takes account of the care needs of the under-fives.

Greater attention and investment in policies to support parental mental health and parenting from the earliest stage of a child’s life.

A more coherent, joined up and effective approach to early childhood would help to address the inequalities between children by supporting them early on in life and establishing deep roots from which they can grow and flourish.

ChildTrends

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Knowing the Strengths and Limitations of Poverty Measures Can Help Us Better Understand Poverty

• James Fuller
• Renee Ryberg

Yiyu Chen is the lead author, and James Fuller and Renee Ryberg contributed equally to this brief.

The ways poverty is measured can influence how we, as a country, understand what it means to live in poverty. Poverty measures inform the work of policymakers, practitioners, and advocates to address poverty and prevent the adverse consequences associated with it. This brief summarizes basic attributes of the range of poverty measures used in the United States, as well as their strengths and limitations. Our goal is to give policy analysts and researchers the tools to appropriately interpret poverty statistics and decide when to use which measure.

In this brief, we first review two major categories of poverty measures— absolute and relative measures —as well as basic elements of a poverty measure: economic resources and thresholds. Second, we introduce poverty measures commonly used in the United States, including the U.S. Official Poverty Measure (OPM) (an absolute measure), examples of relative measures, the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) and the Principal Poverty Measure (PPM) (both quasi-relative measures), and consumption-based measures of poverty . Third, we consider approaches to measuring poverty as a continuum or spectrum of well-being (as opposed to a dichotomous measure of whether someone lives in poverty or not). Finally, we conclude the brief by noting the context in which each measure can be applied and describing recent advancements in measurement.

While we focus on poverty as a measure of monetary deprivation, we recognize the importance of other social and economic indicators in capturing diverse experiences of poverty—such as lack of access to education, food, health care, and basic infrastructure—but note that they are beyond the scope of this brief.

Download Table

• Comparison of Poverty Measures in the United States Table

I. Major Categories of Poverty Measures, Including Basic Elements

Poverty measures can be generally categorized into two groups: Absolute and relative measures. An absolute poverty measure compares a household’s economic resources against a threshold defined by the cost of minimum necessities such as food, clothing, and shelter. Relative measures of poverty , on the other hand, compare one’s economic resources with a threshold defined by the resources held by others in society—for example, a relative measure that defines poverty status for a given area as having an income less than that area’s median household income.

Absolute and relative poverty measures represent distinct concepts of poverty. In a hypothetical famine—a time during which most of a population is unable to meet their basic needs and therefore lives in absolute poverty—a smaller share of the population might live in relative poverty, depending on where the relative threshold is drawn. In a rich country, where most can afford basic necessities and live above an absolute poverty level, there can be a higher share of the population that lives in relative poverty: These people’s resources would still be far below those held by most others in that country.

Both absolute and relative poverty measures consider the following basic components:

• The economic resources of a household [1]
• A threshold against which these economic resources are compared

There are at least three types of economic resources—income, consumption, and wealth—from which households derive economic well-being. For example, members of a household bring in earnings (income) to pay for housing and food (consumption) and set aside their remaining funds as savings (wealth).

The current U.S. debate around poverty measurement revolves around where to draw poverty lines (thresholds) and how to count economic resources. Our brief focuses on income and consumption as economic resources, and we do not examine wealth, which in the U.S. context is often examined separately from poverty. The broader literature considers absolute and relative measures and the different facets of poverty that each category captures. The most dominant measures used in the United States are absolute poverty, the U.S. government’s official approach, and a hybrid of absolute and relative poverty measurement. In the next section of this brief, we summarize the OPM , examples of relative measures, the SPM (as well as the PPM ), and examples of consumption-based measures of poverty . For each measure, we discuss whether it describes absolute or relative poverty, how it sets thresholds and defines resources, what its limitations are, and the circumstances under which it may be suited for use in analysis of poverty.

II. Common Poverty Measures

Official poverty measure.

The Official Poverty Measure (OPM) is an absolute, income-based measure that has been used to generate the U.S. government’s primary poverty statistics in the United States for more than half a century . The OPM is based on the official poverty thresholds —sometimes referred to as the “federal poverty line” (FPL) [2] —and considers households with annual incomes below these thresholds to be living in poverty. Using this measure, it is relatively easy to compare poverty rates over a long period of time and to estimate populations that are income-eligible for public benefits. The OPM has the following components:

• The original thresholds were based on data from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s: They were calculated as three times the cost of a very minimal basket of foods at a time in which families, on average, spent one third of their after-tax income on food. [3] Thresholds increased with family size and number of children to account for added expenses for additional people, as well as economies of scale . The thresholds have been updated annually to adjust for inflation .
• The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) is used to update the official poverty thresholds. There has been debate over how well the CPI-U corrects for inflation, with some scholars arguing that the CPI-U creates a downward bias and some arguing that it corrects upward.

Economic resources

• In addition to market incomes (e.g., earnings, investment income, pensions, etc.), the OPM counts a limited number of government transfers (mostly in cash), such as Social Security, unemployment insurance, Temporary Assistance to Need Families (TANF), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
• The OPM counts persons related by birth, marriage, and adoption who are living together in its definition of a family (or a resource unit). [4]

The OPM has several limitations. First, because it is based on the cost of minimal dietary needs identified in the 1960s, its thresholds have not kept up with changes in household spending or modern family life. Households now spend less than 15 percent of their income on food [5] (compared to one third in the 1950s); in contrast, housing , child care , and health care make up a larger share of household spending now than in the past. Second, the OPM excludes some of the largest transfers to lower-income families—notably, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and (in 2021) the expanded Child Tax Credit . Prior research has additionally counted some of these benefits and compared total household incomes against the OPM thresholds. Third, increases in cohabitation and diverse family structures bring challenges to the OPM, which overlooks the presence of unmarried partners who may share resources with members of the family.

In 2021, the OPM poverty thresholds were $21,831 for a family of one adult and two children and $27,479 for a family of two adults and two children. Based on the OPM thresholds for poverty across all household sizes, 11 million ( 15.3% ) children under age 18 lived in poverty in 2021 (Table 1).

Relative Measures of Income Poverty

Relative measures of income poverty are commonly used in cross-national comparisons of poverty in high-income countries and have some limited use in defining program eligibility in the United States. Such measures compare a household’s economic well-being to that of others in the population, or to a “norm” of economic well-being. They focus on the level of resources that can provide similar opportunities as those available to most other households, as opposed to merely meeting basic needs. Relative measures share

• Relative poverty measures use a threshold based on a percentile of a total population’s income or resource distribution. A conventional relative measure of poverty is defined as having an income below 50 percent of the median income.
• Relative measures automatically adjust for changes in standards of living since their thresholds are based on a percentile of income considered to be representative of the contemporary standard of living .
• Relative measures can account for differences in cost of living across geographies with existing data on local income distributions. In the United States, federal housing and child care assistance programs use relative poverty measures to determine eligibility, as housing and child care costs tend to vary by geography. For example, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Housing Choice Voucher program confers eligibility to families with incomes below half of the local median income.
• To estimate thresholds for use by HUD’s housing programs, the Census Bureau counts incomes reported in the American Community Survey , which include most market incomes (e.g., earnings, interest, retirement incomes), Social Security and SSI benefits, welfare benefits, and unemployment compensation.
• Relative measures typically consider the same type of economic resources (e.g., incomes) to determine both a household’s resources and the threshold against which these resources are compared.

Relative measures also have limitations. Because they consider a household’s income in relation to others’, they cannot capture longer-term change in absolute economic well-being: Material well-being may have improved (in absolute terms) even when relative poverty rates remain the same. This implies that, during an economic downturn, poverty rates based on relative measures may not increase as much as absolute poverty rates typically do if the median income (and thus the threshold) also falls.

In 2021, half of the median household income was about $42,100 for all households with children in the United States. Using this threshold and counting taxes and benefits, one analysis found that roughly 14 percent of children under age 18 lived in households experiencing relative poverty (Table 1).

Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) and Principal Poverty Measure (PPM)

The SPM and PPM incorporate ideas of both absolute and relative measures. In 1995, poverty measurement scholars convened to offer recommendations to address the OPM’s limitations. Drawing on these recommendations, an interagency working group formed to develop the SPM in 2009. Several improvements in poverty measurement have been (and continue to be) made with the SPM. In 2023, at the time of writing this brief, the SPM’s evaluation panel suggested calling the next iteration of the SPM “ the Principal Poverty Measure ,” given the SPM’s major role in tracking the impact of government programs on poverty. The panel also made new recommendations for future development of the PPM.

Below, we summarize features of the SPM and the panel’s major recommendations for the PPM:

Updating thresholds for the cost of necessities

• SPM: To account for modern levels of spending on necessities, the SPM compares household resources against data on current population-level household expenditures . Specifically, SPM thresholds are set at 83 percent of roughly the median [6] household expenditures on food, clothing, shelter, utilities, telephone, and internet, multiplied by 1.2 to account for additional basic needs.
• PPM: The SPM evaluation panel has recommended that the PPM’s thresholds include the cost of meeting basic health (insurance) and child care needs , and that the basis for the 1.2 multiplier be re-evaluated.

Updating cost of necessities these thresholds would reduce the measure’s quasi-relative nature

• SPM: The SPM is a quasi-relative measure with thresholds based on the distribution of spending across households. This means that the thresholds change over time (as in a relative measure) as spending patterns evolve. However, since household spending on necessities tends to be more stable than incomes, the SPM thresholds can seem similar to permanent, fixed thresholds in an absolute measure like the OPM.
• PPM: The evaluation panel has recommended including basic health and child care needs (as opposed to using a percentile of health and child care expenditures), which will make the future PPM less of a quasi-relative measure.

Better adjusting for housing cost variations

• SPM: SPM thresholds vary by housing tenure —renters, homeowners with mortgages, and homeowners without mortgages—and adjust for geographic variations in the cost of living by accounting for median rents by metropolitan-area status .
• PPM: The evaluation panel has recommended that the PPM eliminate complex adjustment by housing tenure and use fair market rents (FMRs) instead, since FMRs data include more geographies than the median-rent data used for the SPM.

Expanding the definition of household resources

• SPM: In addition to counting cash incomes like the OPM, the SPM counts additional government benefits including tax credits, near-cash (e.g., food stamps), and in-kind benefits (e.g., free and reduced-price school meals).
• PPM: The evaluation panel has recommended that the PPM include health insurance benefits and child care subsidies received in the definition of a household’s resources.

Incorporating a direct account of child care needs

• SPM: The SPM subtracts out necessary expenses to reflect the disposable resources available to a household, including tax liabilities, child care and other work expenses, medical expenses, and child support paid to another household.
• PPM: The evaluation panel has recommended that the PPM directly count child care needs in the thresholds, instead of indirectly as reduced resources to a household.

Expanding the definitions of household members

• SPM: Compared to the OPM, the SPM accounts for additional household members who share housing, food, and other living expenses, including unmarried partners, unrelated children, and their relatives in the household.
• PPM: The evaluation panel has recommended that the PPM count all related and unrelated individuals in a household, because housing—the largest consumption item—is shared among all members of a household.

Because the SPM uses expenditures data that have a relatively short history, poverty measurement scholars have developed techniques to examine long-term trends in SPM poverty rates. [7] Scholars have taken different approaches to this task and long-term poverty trends vary based on the method used. Some approaches anchor thresholds to household expenditures from a (recent) point in time while others use partial historical data to form historical thresholds; both adjust these reference data for inflation for years when data were not collected. There has not yet been discussion around how well the PPM can trace historical trends since it is still under development; however, because it is likely to require new data (e.g., on the cost of a basic health insurance plan), there may be some limitations for the purpose of historical analysis.

In 2021, the average SPM thresholds across the country for two adults and two children were $31,107 for homeowners with mortgages, $26,279 for owners without mortgages, and $31,453 for renters.  SPM-based poverty rates were lower in 2021 than before the COVID-19 pandemic, [8] primarily due to temporary policies such as Economic Impact Payments (or “stimulus checks”), expanded unemployment benefits , and the 2021 expanded Child Tax Credit . Around 3.8 million children under age 18 (or 5.2% ) lived in poverty as measured with the SPM in 2021 (Table 1); in 2020, 9.7 percent of children lived in SPM-based poverty.

Consumption Poverty Measures

The poverty measures described above largely consider a household’s income in defining its economic resources. Consumption poverty measures , by contrast, consider that a household’s economic well-being is reflected in its consumption. This approach is rooted in an economic theory that households draw on resources (incomes, savings, assets, etc.) to support their economic well-being and save those resources when they are not in need. Households’ consumption patterns do not change as sharply as their incomes, either over short periods of time (e.g., an economic downturn) or over the life course (e.g., through aging and retirement). Therefore, from this perspective, it is insufficient to use income data to define economic resources, as in the OPM and SPM.

Consumption poverty measures, like their income-based counterparts, can be either relative or absolute. We summarize key components of consumption-based measures from this National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) report .

• The consumption relative poverty measure sets the threshold at half of the median value of consumption among all households.
• The consumption absolute poverty measure uses the thresholds that yield consumption-based poverty rates that are the same as OPM-based poverty rates in the baseline year (e.g., 1980). Consumption absolute poverty rates can be interpreted as the prevalence of consumption poverty today based on a fixed level of consumption (of an OPM-poor household in the baseline year).
• Economic resources in consumption measures of poverty include easily measured components of consumption, such as food, rent, and utilities. Data on these items are drawn directly from the Consumer Expenditure Survey . A value of current consumption of durable goods (e.g., a house or vehicle) and health insurance is estimated as part of total resources because payments for these items (for example, mortgage payments) do not accurately capture the value of current consumption. By using expenditures data, the consumption poverty measures also address bias in reports of household incomes, as measurement issues have been identified in the income data used in the OPM and SPM (e.g., underreporting of public benefits and self-employment incomes ).

Although consumption poverty measures are grounded in theory, they also have a few limitations. For example, consumption measures do not differentiate whether households finance consumption with high-interest payday loans or in other ways that compromise their well-being . These measures require complex calculations of the value of consumption derived from certain goods and services and use expenditures data that are available only for large geographic areas . It is also more difficult to identify the effects of income policies on consumption poverty than on income poverty.

There is no single, universally agreed-upon method for determining consumption poverty, and no method is considered “official” by the federal government. One study found that estimates for consumption-based absolute poverty rates ranged from 16.3 percent to 19.5 percent among children, with thresholds (anchored to the official poverty level in 2015) of $26,583 for a family of four in 2018.

III. Poverty as a Continuum of Experience

While both absolute and relative poverty measures group people into one of two categories—as either living in poverty or not—an income just slightly above the threshold may not provide a noticeable advantage in economic well-being over an income that is slightly below the threshold. In conceptualizing poverty as a continuum of experience, poverty scholars use different percentage multiples of poverty thresholds to capture varying levels of economic scarcity. Both relative and absolute poverty measures can be adapted for this purpose:

• With relative measures, levels of poverty can be measured by using different references to the income or consumption distribution as a threshold (such as 60% or 80% of the median income).
• With absolute measures, the continuum of experience can be captured by using income-to-needs ratios. For example, a ratio of a household’s income to the official poverty threshold (e.g., a value of 1.2 means that family income is 1.2 times the poverty threshold) is commonly used to capture the range of experiences of economic well-being (as in this study ). Different cutoffs are also frequently used in statistical reporting, including 100-200 percent of the threshold for low-income status and less than 50 percent of the threshold for deep poverty .

Another way to evaluate the depth of poverty along a continuum is to use the concept of a “ poverty gap .” Poverty gaps can be used to answer questions about the amount of income needed to lift a household out of poverty. Related measures include (but are not limited to): (1) the total poverty gap —that is, the total amount of gaps between each household’s income and the poverty line across all poor households; and (2) the poverty gap index , or the average ratio of the shortfall in income from a poverty line to the poverty line. [9] For two economies with similar poverty rates, one may have a larger poverty gap than the other, indicating a higher level of economic need.

IV. Using Appropriate Measures to Best Understand Poverty

The measures reviewed in this brief define economic deprivation differently, from absolute to relative terms, and each considers a distinct level and makeup of economic resources sufficient for living in the United States and adjusts for temporal and geographic differences to varying degrees.

Each measure has its own strengths and limitations.

• The OPM is an absolute poverty measure based on the cost of a minimal diet in the 1960s. The OPM-based official poverty rates are suited for analysis of cash transfers and of long-term trends. However, for the most part, its thresholds based on living standards from more than a half century ago do not reflect the needs of modern life.
• Compared to absolute measures, relative measures—by referencing median incomes—focus on whether a household or other unit of analysis has economic resources that more closely resemble the resources available to the majority or middle class in society. With this reference, relative measures adjust for changing standards of living more effectively than other measures but cannot measure improvement in absolute economic well-being over time.
• The SPM and PPM are quasi-relative measures that consider increasingly important factors that affect economic well-being, including government in-kind and tax benefit transfers and geographic differences in housing costs. However, these measures have a relatively short history of data to fully capture longer-term trends, and the adjustment for health and child care needs is still in development .
• Consumption poverty measures address underreporting of incomes and consider drawing on resources in addition to incomes for consumption; however, these measures use expenditures data—some of which require additional estimation of consumption and/or are unavailable for smaller geographies.

Because each measure involves tradeoffs between their strengths and limitations, their appropriate use depends on context and application. For example, the OPM may still be suited for historical comparisons, but the SPM (or PPM) and relative measures may be more ideal measures to center on today’s needs. Consumption poverty measures may provide information about aspects of material well-being that income-based measures do not fully capture. With evidence from multiple poverty measures across studies, policymakers and researchers can better understand different aspects of poverty and the impacts of policy on poverty.

Recent or future developments can further improve poverty measurement. For example, poverty scholars are working to sharpen their estimation for child care cost and health insurance value , validate poverty measures with hardship indicators such as food insecurity, and use monthly poverty measures to capture instability in economic well-being. New data applications may also address the unique limitations in each measure. For example, the use of administrative income data helps reduce bias in income reporting, and credit card data offer timely information on consumption. Continued advancement in poverty measurement will help policymakers, practitioners, and informed citizens better understand poverty—through multiple lenses and through effective measurement—as we all work toward reducing it.

[1] A family or an individual can also be an economic unit that makes economic decisions; however, in this brief, we refer to households, which are the unit of analysis for most major poverty measures in the United States.

[2] Although the term federal poverty line (FPL) is frequently used in the literature, it is ambiguous and can mean either of the two different sets of income cutoffs—the federal poverty thresholds used by the Census Bureau for statistical purposes and the federal poverty “ guidelines ” used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to administer programs. The federal poverty guidelines are a slightly different version of the federal poverty thresholds to determine program eligibility for benefits (see here for a list of government programs that use the guidelines). In Alaska and Hawaii, the guidelines are much higher than the thresholds to adjust for these states’ higher cost of living.

[3] The average household in the 1950s spent one third of its income on food. However, in any year, low-income households typically spend a higher share of household income on food than the average household.

[4] Which members of a household (or another resource unit) are counted in a poverty measure affects not only the resources available to a household but also their needs (and therefore the measure’s thresholds). However, because explaining the calculation of thresholds based on the composition of a resource unit requires technical details (due to economies of scale ), we discuss the implications of defining the resource unit under the section for household economic resources.

[5] Specifically, households with incomes in the middle quintile spent about 12 percent of their incomes on food in 2021.

[6] In 2019, the SPM interagency technical working group revised the base of thresholds from averages within the 30th to 36th percentile of household expenditures to 83 percent of the averages within the 47th to 53rd percentile range.

[7] The Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy has made historical SPM data dating back to 1967 publicly available online .

[8] In 2019, the SPM-based poverty rate among children under age 18 was 12.7 percent and the OPM poverty rate was 14.4 percent . The SPM poverty rate declined to 9.7 percent in 2020 in part due to two rounds of Economic Impact Payments (EIPs) during the first calendar year of the pandemic, and dropped again to 5.2 percent in 2021 due to the last round of EIPs and the temporarily expanded, fully refundable Child Tax Credit. In contrast, the OPM poverty rate increased to 16.0 percent in 2020 before declining to 15.3 percent in 2021.

Suggested Citation

Chen, Y., Fuller, J., & Ryberg, R. (2023). Knowing the strengths and limitations of poverty measures can help us better understand poverty. Child Trends. https://doi.org/10.56417/6813u6201t

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Community Developments

The outreach blog : from the field.

Poverty in Africa: Real-Life Consequences & Sustainable Solutions

In this blog post, we’ll explore the underlying causes of poverty in Africa and their profound effects on families. We’ll note some research findings to shed light on why this issue is so persistent in this part of the world. And we’ll share the good news of the community-led programs facilitated by Outreach International and the sustainable solutions they can lead to.

A Closer Look at the Causes and Effects of Poverty in Africa

Economic challenges and unemployment.

In 2015 the United Nations committed itself to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in its efforts to end global poverty. Its goals include improvements in health, education, equality, economic development, and environmental improvement by 2030.

However, at this point in time, Africa is not on track to meet these goals. Africa has the highest extreme poverty rates globally , with 23 of the world’s 28 poorest countries, which have extreme poverty rates above 30%. Using the poverty line of $1.90 per day, Africa’s extreme poverty rate was recently estimated to be about 35.5% . This rate is 6.8 times higher than the average for the rest of the world.

One of the key factors contributing to poverty in Africa is economic instability. High rates of unemployment, income inequality, and economic policies that sometimes fail to prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable citizens of an African nation all play a role. For instance, in sub-Saharan Africa, youth unemployment rates are staggeringly high. This makes it difficult for young people to secure a stable livelihood. Income inequality adds to the issue, with an extremely uneven distribution of wealth leaving many struggling to meet even their most basic household needs. This issue of economic disparity not only affects individual families but spreads through entire communities, preventing progress and development.

Health Issues and Access to Medical Care

A person’s physical health is central to their overall well-being. But many communities within several African nations lack access to adequate healthcare. This puts them at unusually high risk of preventable illness and a lack of injury treatment. These issues not only result in a lower day-to-day quality of life but also have wider-ranging implications for stifling economic growth and development. This is especially true for communities in rural and remote areas.

And the COVID-19 pandemic only made matters more difficult for many of these communities. The Institute for Security Studies states that about 30 million more Africans fell into extreme poverty (living on less than US $1.90 a day) when COVID-19 broke out in 2020. Health problems can lead to reduced productivity and increased healthcare expenses. These factors perpetuate an unending cycle of chronic poverty. When people are too ill or injured to work or attend school, they cannot make strides toward prosperity. Addressing these health challenges is essential to breaking this cycle.

The community of Boyole, Malawi, was dealing with the most serious issue of a high mortality rate for children under five. The community-led organization in Boyole, the Tithandizane Organization, realized that children and young mothers lacked adequate access to the healthcare necessary to solve this problem. The organization submitted a proposal to Outreach International, which approved the project. Now, families in Boyole have a permanent clinic with a dedicated healthcare professional that is managed by the government health department. This successful project has led to adequate healthcare for 1,800 young children and their mothers, and is a shining example of the effectiveness of the community-led development process. (Read more about the Boyole children’s clinic.)

Impact on Education

Education is the surest way to escape poverty. But in Africa, it’s not uncommon for children to face barriers to accessing quality education. Geographic distance from adequate schools and inadequate resources in existing schools create significant hurdles for students. Also, children in impoverished families must often contribute to the necessary work of subsistence living, such as fetching water from a distant source and irrigating crops by hand. These time-consuming tasks can prevent a child from finding the time to attend school. This perpetuates the cycle of poverty into the next generation.

Also, the role of education in empowering adults cannot be overstated. Job skills training, literacy, and community development project competency all equip people with the skills and knowledge they need to improve their lives. But the lack of educational opportunities in impoverished areas hinders progress even for adults.

But Outreach-affiliated communities always seem to find a way to overcome their poverty-related issues, even under the most difficult of circumstances. During the COVID-19 pandemic, while poverty rates were spiking throughout Africa, our community groups got to work. They set up training sessions where community members learned how to make masks . They sourced their own supplies, created a source of income, and protected their communities in the process.

Environmental Factors and Resource Scarcity

Africa’s current environmental challenges also create poverty-related issues. Drought, deforestation, and resource scarcity are all contributing factors. And there’s abundant evidence that climate change is exacerbating these problems. These environmental factors often lead to serious poverty-related issues, including food insecurity, the hardship of displacement, and increased competition for limited resources.

Access to clean water, arable land, and other natural resources is essential for sustainable development. When these resources are scarce or mismanaged, it perpetuates extreme poverty in vulnerable communities. Addressing these environmental issues is not only a matter of ecological stability but also a pathway to economic growth and sustainable development.

Unequal Distribution of Wealth and Resources

Wealth and resources in Africa are often not evenly distributed in a way that includes remote areas. Some regions and communities have abundant access to natural and government resources and the opportunities they provide, while others do not. This unequal distribution perpetuates disparities in living standards and equal access to essential services.

For instance, in some African countries, like many places in the world, a small percentage of the population controls a significant portion of the nation’s wealth. This leaves the majority of people struggling to meet their needs. According to the United Nations, the poverty rate in rural areas in Africa is 17.2%, which is more than three times higher than in urban areas, at 5.3%. This unequal distribution of wealth in Africa can lead to social unrest and instability, making poverty alleviation even more challenging.

Outreach International’s Impact: Community-Led Solutions to Build a Better Future

Outreach International is making a tangible difference in the lives of communities in several African countries. We’re dedicated to empowering local communities through innovative solutions and sustainable development projects. Our goal is to demonstrate to people who live in even the most extreme poverty that they have the power within themselves to improve their own lives.

Innovative Approaches and Sustainable Development

Outreach International is working with communities in the African countries of DR Congo, Zambia, and Malawi. We help communities solve their poverty-related issues with the methodology of community-led development . This work is based on the idea that improvements are most likely to be sustained if the people who benefit from the solution are involved in the process. Every community has a unique set of issues that keep it in a state of chronic poverty. This is why the people who live with these issues are the ones who are most qualified to identify and solve them. By involving community members in development projects, we empower them to learn, lead, and begin to solve issues on their own.

Poverty in Africa is a complex issue with deep-seated causes, but it’s not insurmountable. Outreach International is creating positive change , and community-led organizations are making strides every day to lift themselves out of poverty and into a life filled with prosperity and hope that can last for generations.

How to Help

The fight against poverty in Africa is not one that can be waged by organizations alone; it requires the collective efforts of individuals like you. You can contribute to alleviating poverty in Africa through Outreach International with your donations.

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Poverty Threatens Education in Developing Nations

A high-quality education is a fundamental human right; it’s also the foundation on which economic development in any nation is laid. Education additionally paves the way to preventing injustice, improving public health, and even protecting the planet. Without it, people can neither obtain the jobs they need to sustainably support themselves nor help their communities grow and prosper. Yet in many developing countries, poverty itself is a major educational barrier that prevents individuals, communities, and entire nations from thriving.

Here are some of the ways poverty begets more poverty in low-income nations—and how you can help with just a few clicks on your computer screen or mobile device.

How Does Poverty Affect Education?

Poverty at the individual, family, community, and national levels creates systemic challenges to maintaining a robust and accessible education for children. Here are some of the biggest barriers to education in low-income countries.

Poverty and Cost-related Barriers for Families

Families living in poverty often struggle to meet their basic needs, including education-related expenses for one—much less multiple—children. The cost of a grade school education, such as tuition, school fees, uniforms, transportation, and supplies, can place a significant burden on these households. As a result, parents are often compelled to prioritize immediate survival over their children’s education. This leads to increased dropout rates and otherwise intermittent or interrupted education for children.

Lack of Community Infrastructure and Materials

Another critical factor that hampers education in developing countries is the way that poverty entrenches a lack of essential infrastructure (such as paved roads, plumbing, electricity, and regulated transportation) and other resources. Many communities struggle to implement the following:

Educational facilities and learning materials. These include dedicated school buildings, furniture, restroom facilities, and classroom supplies. In some areas, classes may take place in a tent or under a tree, and children of widely varying ages and grade levels may be crowded into a single class. All of this creates an unfavorable learning environment for children.

Clean water and sanitation. A lack of convenient clean water and sanitation facilities in many communities leaves students without drinking water or modern restrooms.  Students must often leave class to fetch water, and teen girls face added challenges with regard to privacy and menstrual supplies. Poor sanitation and clean water access also increases viral and bacterial health risks, which lead to frequent illness and absences from school.

Social and Political Drivers of Poverty

Low-income nations can often be susceptible to chronic political instability and damaging cultural norms, including:

Gender inequality. Girls in many developing countries are subject to deep cultural biases that effectively “pipeline” them into domestic roles rather than into school and high-quality careers. As a result, girls are also frequently devalued as financial liabilities, a “problem” that families too often transfer to husbands via premature marriage. This not only endangers girls’ health and wellbeing, but perpetuates the cycle of poverty, since half the population is prevented from meaningful participation in the workforce.

Violent political conflict. Countries affected by violent conflicts and political fragility experience disrupted educational systems, making it challenging for children to consistently access schooling. Armed conflicts also take government funding away from education. They cause the destruction of infrastructure, the displacement of communities, and the recruitment of child soldiers. This leaves millions of children cut off from the education and job opportunities needed to break out of poverty.

Child labor and exploitation. Family poverty can push children into the workforce, where they contribute in meager ways to their families’ income instead of attending school and qualifying for higher-paying positions. Worse, poverty forces orphans into child labor. Both outcomes not only deprive children of their right to education, but also expose them to hazardous working conditions, exploitation, and no way to build a better life for themselves.

Inadequate teacher training and retention. A high-quality education is crucial for children to acquire the skills and knowledge they need to improve their lives. Yet many developing countries face challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified teachers. Insufficient training, professional development, pay, and (in rural areas) accommodations limit teachers’ ability to provide a quality education. This damages students’ learning outcomes and perpetuates poverty.

How You Can Help

Governments in neighboring and wealthy nations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and nonprofit organizations (NPOs) can work together to remove the larger and more systemic poverty-related barriers to education—and many do. Yet even you as an individual have the power to contribute to direct changes at the community level. You can help children in low-income countries get the high-quality education they need to build brighter futures. The best part? It’s as simple as donating to a humanitarian organization near you.

Lift Up Children’s Education with Tree of Life for the World

Tree of Life for the World provides essential community development, health, and education services for the most underserved people in low-income countries, including care for widows and orphans. We focus on lifting children and communities through education, essential healthcare, and improved infrastructure as well as workforce support and disaster relief through a Christ-centered approach.

You can support our work by making a one-time donation or sponsoring a child monthly or a well. Your sponsorship prioritizes support for children’s education and their communities’ well-being. Your monthly gift allows a community’s dreams to become a reality. Give today!

Subjective Poverty

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Self-rated poverty

Subjective poverty is an individual’s perception on his or her financial/material situation. Poverty is defined on the basis of individual feeling, i.e., those who say that they feel poor represent subjective poverty.

Description

The concept of poverty is elusive; there is no straightforward definition of the concept and a generally accepted way of measurement. In most poverty studies a person is defined as poor if he or she lacks enough resources to reach an acceptable standard of living. Usually the analysis is restricted to economic deprivation and misery. Measurements that use low resources as an indication of poverty are often referred to as indirect measurements of poverty (Ringen, 1988 ).

Indirect poverty measurements are the most widely used when determining whether a household is poor or not. In indirect poverty measurement, a household’s available material resources are estimated, and if they fall below a specific threshold, the household...

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Susan Kuivalainen

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Kuivalainen, S. (2014). Subjective Poverty. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_2900

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