Poverty

There is no objective and unique definition of poverty, which is capable to describe exactly when somebody is poor. There has been an evolution in the description of poverty. In these definitions, it is shown that poverty is not only lack of money to buy food, but is also related to living conditions, well-being, health, and possibilities to change the personal situation.

Poverty can be defined in different ways. Every definition leads to different outcomes, to a different group of people, which can be considered as poor and, in relation to this, to different policy measures and a different amount of costs needed to solve the problem of poverty.

Poverty exists for many centuries, but the content of the notion differs from country to country and from time to time. There is a difference in poverty in Western Europe and Eastern Europe. There is also a difference in the meaning of poverty in Western Europe in the last century and today. Last century poverty mostly meant that a part of the population had to struggle for life and did not have enough money to buy food: poverty was an absolute notion. Nowadays most of the Western European countries have comprehensive social security schemes, which cover the whole population. Almost everybody has a basic income and in some countries this income is rather high. In those countries therefore poverty cannot longer be seen as a threat of daily life. There, poverty means that a part of population has arrears in relation to the average population: poverty is a relative notion.

Most discussions distinguish between absolute or primary poverty and relative or secondary poverty. «Absolute poverty» refers to a lack of the basic requirements to sustain physical life. «Relative poverty» is used to demonstrate the inadequacy of definitions of absolute or primary poverty by referring to the cultural needs of individuals and families within the context of the rest of society. An absolute poverty line is a kind of fixed amount. An absolute poverty line is not meant to change with the standard of living in society. People are defined as «poor» if their income is below the line and when some absolute needs are not sufficiently satisfied.