Poverty in the UK: statistics
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This briefing explains UK poverty statistics, including historical trends and forecasts, and poverty by employment, tenure, ethnicity, disability and region.
By Brigid Francis-Devine
How is poverty measured?
The focus in this briefing is on poverty defined in terms of disposable household income (income after adding on benefits and deducting direct taxes). However, poverty may be defined in different ways and there is no single, universally accepted definition.
Two commonly used measures of poverty based on disposable income are:
- Relative low income: This refers to people living in households with income below 60% of the median in that year.
- Absolute low income: This refers to people living in households with income below 60% of median income in a base year, usually 2010/11. This measurement is adjusted for inflation.
Median income is the point at which half of households have lower income and half have higher income.
Income can be measured before or after housing costs are deduct...
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