Primary poverty

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Primary poverty is a categorisation of poverty created by Seebohm Rowntree. Primary poverty is the name given to a group of people who lived below Seebohm Rowntree's poverty line. To live in primary poverty is to have insufficient income to afford basic needs. According to his study in York 10% of the city’s population lived in primary poverty. Rowntree describes this group as having "insufficient to obtain the minimum necessaries for the maintenance of mere physical efficiency".


The poverty line shows when an indivdual might find themselves above or below the 'poverty line'- an idea Seebohm Rowntree developed from Charles Booth, the poverty line Rowntree drew has the age of the indiviual along the bottom, showing main events in the persons life that would effect whether or not they were above or below the poverty line. These events include getting married; their children beginning to earn; when the children leave home and marry; finally when the individual is below the age where they can work. the three main areas on the line where the individual is said to be below the poverty line are from the ages 5-15, 30-40, and 65+.

[edit] See also

[edit] Further Reading