Statistics on poverty and inequality
A selection of statistics about poverty in the UK.
The Old Testament frequently refers to the importance of considering those in poverty, both within the Jewish community and in wider society and many verses demonstrate that this is an issue close to God's heart.
In the New Testament, Jesus spoke about poverty and justice many times. In the gospel of Matthew alone, there are 16 occasions when Jesus spoke of poverty and justice. You will find an analysis of some of Jesus' encounters in Matthew in Jon Kuhrt's article Comforting the disturbed, disturbing the comfortable.
Altogether, there are over 290 verses in the New Testament that refer to poverty and justice.
Unless otherwise indicated, the source for the following statistics is The Poverty Site and mainly date back before the impact of the current financial situation.
• In the UK, 1 in 6 people supported the Make Poverty History Campaign.
• Just under 1 in 4 people in the UK – or nearly 13 million people – live in poverty, in the UK. This includes nearly 1 in 3 children (almost 4 million).
• Over 10.5 million people live in financial insecurity: they can’t afford to save, insure their house contents, or spend even small amounts on themselves. About 9.5 million can’t afford adequate housing – heated, free from damp, and in a decent state of decoration. The crucial factor about these findings is that they are based on a survey of what the general population sees as necessities.
• Groups in the UK at greater risk of poverty include women, as well as children: nearly 1 in 4 women lived in poverty in 1999/2000, compared with 1 in 5 men – even before taking account of the ‘hidden poverty’ that may exist in households where income and other resources are not shared fairly.
• Minority ethnic groups in the UK are often more vulnerable to poverty, in particular Pakistanis/ Bangladeshis, more than two-thirds of whom were living in poverty in 2000/01. Some groups, such as asylum-seekers, also have to live on lower benefit levels.
• In 2005/06, around 13 million people in the UK were living in households below this low income threshold. This is around a fifth (22%) of the population.
• This 13 million figure is an increase of ¾ million compared with the previous year, 2004/05. It follows six uninterrupted years of decreases from 1998/1999 to 2004/05 and is the first increase since 1996/97.
• Among working-age adults living in low income households, half have someone in their family who is in paid work.
• More than half of all low income households are paying full Council Tax, noticeably higher than in the mid-1990s.
• Around 5 million adults aged 22 to retirement were paid less than £7 per hour in 2007. Two-thirds of these were women and half were part-time workers.
• In 2007, a quarter of workers earning less than £7 per hour worked in the public sector.
• One in eight 16- to 19-year-olds are not in education, employment or training, slightly higher than a decade ago.
• The top 1 per cent own 21 per cent of the nation's wealth - three times as much as the bottom half (who own 7 per cent). (HMRC)
• The average house price has gone up four times faster than the average wage over the last ten years. (DCLG)
• Adults in the poorest fifth of the income distribution are twice as likely to be at risk of developing a mental illness as those on average incomes.
• A quarter of homes in England were classified as non-decent in 2005 compared to almost a half in 1996.
• The number of mortgage holders in serious arrears is at its lowest level for fifteen years but, by contrast, court orders for re-possession doubled between 2004 and 2006.
• Around 14% of working age households are now in receipt of tax credits. In total, more than three times as many people are now in receipt of tax credits as were in receipt of Family Credit a decade ago.
• Children from poor homes are more likely to die as a baby or a child, and have lower life expectancy overall. They also have a greater likelihood of bad health, a greater risk of unemployment, and a lower chance of high educational achievement.
• Although the number of children who are in workless households has fallen by around a fifth over the last decade, the UK still has a higher proportion than any other EU country.
• Poverty is likely to last longer for young children in particular. Overall, a recent survey found that about half of all individuals in the bottom fifth of income spent 6 or more years there. Whilst people do move out of poverty, many do not move very far, and many more experience poverty sometimes.
• A half of all lone parents are on a low income, two-and-a-half times the rate for couples with children.
• Tax credits now help more than a million children in working families on a low income, but the number needing such help has risen sharply.
• Boosting benefits sufficient to halve child poverty would cost each year less than one third the cost this year's city bonuses. (JRF+ Guardian survey)
• Children in schools with relatively high numbers on free school meals continue to do much worse than other schools.
• The UK has the worst rate of child poverty in the European Union – a third of Europe’s poorest children live in the UK
• Child poverty is three times higher than it was 20 years ago.
• According to a recent report on poverty and disability, Disabled people are twice as likely to live in poverty as non-disabled people . Based on the 'relative poverty line' in the UK, (which equates to living in a household with income of less than 60% of median national income) recent estimates suggest that around 30% of disabled people live below this income line, compared to around 16% of non-disabled people
1.
• Disabled people face extra costs related to managing their impairment that amount, on average, to approximately an extra quarter above normal expenditure, compared to non disabled people.
• Because of the extra costs of disability the real poverty line could actually be much higher for disabled people – when the extra costs of disability are factored in, well over half of disabled people live on less than 60% of median national income, as opposed to the unadjusted figure of around 30%.
• The employment rate among disabled people remains far below that of non-disabled people, with around 50% of disabled people not in work, compared to around 20% of non-disabled people.
2• Disabled people who are in work are at a substantially higher risk of in-work poverty, on average earning less than their non-disabled peers and being more likely to work in low skill, low paid jobs.
3
1. 'Comparing incomes when needs differ: Equivalisation for the extra costs of disability in the UK', Ashgar Zaidi and Tania
Burchardt, LSE CASE Report 64, 2003
2. From the Labour Force Survey, as presented in the Disability Rights Commission 'Disability Briefing May 2007', DRC, May 2007
3. Ibid
MH/AB 2008