As of 2023/24 approximately 10.1 million people were living in absolute poverty in the United Kingdom, with that number increasing to 12.3 million when housing costs are considered.

In 2023, the around 11.1 percent of the population was living below the national poverty line in the United States. Poverty in the United StatesAs shown in the statistic above, the poverty rate among all people living in the United States has shifted within the last 15 years. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines poverty as follows: “Absolute poverty measures poverty in relation to the amount of money necessary to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. The concept of absolute poverty is not concerned with broader quality of life issues or with the overall level of inequality in society.” The poverty rate in the United States varies widely across different ethnic groups. American Indians and Alaska Natives are the ethnic group with the most people living in poverty in 2022, with about 25 percent of the population earning an income below the poverty line. In comparison to that, only 8.6 percent of the White (non-Hispanic) population and the Asian population were living below the poverty line in 2022. Children are one of the most poverty endangered population groups in the U.S. between 1990 and 2022. Child poverty peaked in 1993 with 22.7 percent of children living in poverty in that year in the United States. Between 2000 and 2010, the child poverty rate in the United States was increasing every year; however,this rate was down to 15 percent in 2022. The number of people living in poverty in the U.S. varies from state to state. Compared to California, where about 4.44 million people were living in poverty in 2022, the state of Minnesota had about 429,000 people living in poverty.

In 2019, people from most ethnic minority groups were more likely than White British people to live in the most deprived neighbourhoods.

In 2024/25 approximately 2.9 million emergency food parcels were distributed from Trussell Trust food banks in the United Kingdom, compared with 3.1 million in 2023/24.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Family Resources Survey (FRS) has been running continuously since 1992 to meet the information needs of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It is almost wholly funded by DWP.

The FRS collects information from a large, and representative sample of private households in the United Kingdom (prior to 2002, it covered Great Britain only). The interview year runs from April to March.

The focus of the survey is on income, and how much comes from the many possible sources (such as employee earnings, self-employed earnings or profits from businesses, and dividends; individual pensions; state benefits, including Universal Credit and the State Pension; and other sources such as savings and investments). Specific items of expenditure, such as rent or mortgage, Council Tax and water bills, are also covered.

Many other topics are covered and the dataset has a very wide range of personal characteristics, at the adult or child, family and then household levels. These include education, caring, childcare and disability. The dataset also captures material deprivation, household food security and (new for 2021/22) household food bank usage.

The FRS is a national statistic whose results are published on the gov.uk website. It is also possible to create your own tables from FRS data, using DWP’s Stat Xplore tool. Further information can be found on the gov.uk Family Resources Survey webpage.

Secure Access FRS data
In addition to the standard End User Licence (EUL) version, Secure Access datasets, containing unrounded data and additional variables, are also available for FRS from 2005/06 onwards - see SN 9256. Prospective users of the Secure Access version of the FRS will need to fulfil additional requirements beyond those associated with the EUL datasets. Full details of the application requirements are available from Guidance on applying for the Family Resources Survey: Secure Access.

FRS, HBAI and PI
The FRS underpins the related Households Below Average Income (HBAI) dataset, which focuses on poverty in the UK, and the related Pensioners' Incomes (PI) dataset. The EUL versions of HBAI and PI are held under SNs 5828 and 8503, respectively. The Secure Access versions are held under SN 7196 and 9257 (see above).

The FRS aims to: support the monitoring of the social security programme; support the costing and modelling of changes to national insurance contributions and social security benefits; provide better information for the forecasting of benefit expenditure. From April 2002, the FRS was extended to include Northern Ireland.

Edition History:
For the second edition, changes were incorporated into the new grossing regime, GROSS3, for Northern Ireland respondent households.

The third edition of the data included changes to child care variables and some minor data changes.

The fourth edition includes revised data for variable NINRV and variables AGE and SSTRTREG have been suppressed. For full version history see study documentation and READ file below.

For the fifth edition (October 2014) the data have been re-grossed following revision of the FRS grossing methodology to take account of the 2011 Census mid-year population estimates. New variable GROSS4 has been added to the dataset.


Main Topics:

Household characteristics (composition, tenure type); tenure and housing costs including Council Tax, mortgages, insurance, water and sewage rates; consumer durables; vehicles; use of health services; welfare/school milk and meals; educational grants and loans; children in education; informal care (given and received); occupation and employment; health restrictions on work; children's health; wage details; self-employed earnings; personal and occupational pension schemes; income and benefit receipt; income from pensions and trusts, royalties and allowances, maintenance and other sources; income tax payments and refunds; National Insurance contributions; earnings from odd jobs; children's earnings; interest and dividends; investments; National Savings products; assets.

Standard Measures
Standard Occupational Classification

The General Lifestyle Survey (GLF), formerly the General Household Survey (GHS), ran from 1972-2011. It was a continuous annual national survey of people living in private households, conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The main aim of the survey was to collect data on a range of core topics, covering household, family and individual information. This information was used by government departments and other organisations for planning, policy and monitoring purposes, and to present a picture of households, family and people in Great Britain. From 2008, the GHS became a module of the Integrated Household Survey (IHS). In recognition, the survey was renamed the General Lifestyle Survey. The GLF closed in January 2012. The 2011 GLF Special Licence study (SN 7475) is therefore the last in the series. A limited number of questions previously run on the GLF have been included on the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN), and will be deposited at the UK Data Archive as OPN outputs.

Secure Access GHS/GLF
The UK Data Archive holds GLF/GHS data from 1972-2011, but standard access End User Licence (EUL) data are only available from 1972-2006. A Secure Access version is available, covering years 2000-2011 and can be found under SN 6716 General Lifestyle Survey, 2000-2011: Secure Access.

History
The GHS started in 1971 and was conducted annually until 2011, except for breaks in 1997-1998 when the survey was reviewed, and 1999-2000 when the survey was redeveloped. Further information may be found in the 'An overview of 40 years of data' document, available with the GLF 2011 (SN 7475), or on the ONS An overview of 40 years of data: General Lifestyle Survey webpage. Details of changes each year may be found in the individual GHS/GLF survey documentation.

EU-SILC
In 2005, the European Union (EU) made a legal obligation (EU-SILC) for member states to collect additional statistics on income and living conditions. In addition to this the EU-SILC data cover poverty and social exclusion. These statistics are used to help plan and monitor European social policy by comparing poverty indicators and changes over time across the EU. The EU-SILC requirement was integrated into the GHS/GLF in 2005. After the closure of the GLF, EU-SILC will be collected via the Family Resources Survey (FRS) with a standalone survey providing the longitudinal SILC element.

Further information may be found on the ONS General Lifestyle Survey webpages.

Reformatted GHS data 1973-1982 - Surrey SPSS Files
SPSS files have been created by the University of Surrey for all GHS years from 1973 to 1982 inclusive. The early files were restructured and the case changed from the household to the individual with all of the household information duplicated for each individual. The Surrey SPSS files contain all the original variables as well as some extra derived variables (a few variables were omitted from the data files for 1973-76). In 1973 only, the section on leisure was not included in the Surrey SPSS files. This has subsequently been made available, however, and is now held in a separate study, General Household Survey, 1973: Leisure Questions (SN 3982). Records for the original GHS 1973-1982 ASCII files have been removed from the UK Data Archive catalogue, but the data are still preserved and available upon request. Users should note that GLF/GHS data are also available in formats other than SPSS. Changes to the 2006 data
The GHS methodology has changed to longitudinal data collection. The design changed in 2005 but the 2006 dataset is the first wave where a proportion (68%) of the sample are people who were also interviewed the year before. It should be noted however that the dataset is still cross-sectional as it contains data only from 2006.

For the third edition (February 2009), amendments were made to variables LGLSTAT, CHNBORN and CHEXCM in the individual file. A minor error had been discovered by the depositor with the LGLSTAT variable, where 188 cases had been assigned as being in a cohabiting couple, when they should have been classified as either single, widowed or divorced. The subsequent derived variables concerning the number of children in cohabiting relationships (variables CHNBORN and CHEXCM) should also have been set to 'not applicable' for these cases. This error has now been corrected, but it had a minor impact on the breakdown between non-married categories in tables 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.8, 5.10 and 5.11 of the 2006 GHS report. Original and correct versions of the tables are included in the documentation for reference (also available from the GHS website). For a full edition history, see READ file (link below).

Abstract

The Young Lives survey is an innovative long-term project investigating the changing nature of childhood poverty in four developing countries. The purpose of the project is to improve understanding of the causes and consequences of childhood poverty and examine how policies affect children's well-being, in order to inform the development of future policy and to target child welfare interventions more effectively. The study is being conducted in Ethiopia, India (in Andhra Pradesh), Peru and Vietnam. These countries were selected because they reflect a range of cultural, geographical and social contexts and experience differing issues facing the developing world; high debt burden, emergence from conflict, and vulnerability to environmental conditions such as drought and flood.

The survey consists of three main elements: a child questionnaire, a household questionnaire and a community questionnaire. The household data gathered is similar to other cross-sectional datasets (such as the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study). It covers a range of topics such as household composition, livelihood and assets, household expenditure, child health and access to basic services, and education. This is supplemented with additional questions that cover caregiver perceptions, attitudes, and aspirations for their child and the family. Young Lives also collects detailed time-use data for all family members, information about the child's weight and height (and that of caregivers), and tests the children for school outcomes (language comprehension and mathematics). An important element of the survey asks the children about their daily activities, their experiences and attitudes to work and school, their likes and dislikes, how they feel they are treated by other people, and their hopes and aspirations for the future. The community questionnaire provides background information about the social, economic and environmental context of each community. It covers topics such as ethnicity, religion, economic activity and employment, infrastructure and services, political representation and community networks, crime and environmental changes. The Young Lives survey is carried out by teams of local researchers, supported by the Principal Investigator and Data Manager in each country.

Further information about the survey, including publications, can be downloaded from the Young Lives website.

Geographic coverage

Ethiopia - National Coverage India - Andhra Pradesh only Peru - National Coverage Vietnam - National Coverage

Analysis unit

Individuals Families/households Data are also gathered at Community and Mini-Community level.

Universe

Cross-national; Subnational Children aged 12 years old, children aged 19 years old, and the households of both sets, in Ethiopia, India (Andhra Pradesh), Peru and Vietnam. These children were originally interviewed in Rounds 1-3 of the study.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Number of units: Ethiopia: 1,875 (12-year-olds), 908 (19-year-olds); India: 1,915 (12-year-olds), 952 (19-year-olds); Peru: 1,902 (12-year-olds), 635 (19-year-olds); Vietnam: 1,932 (12-year-olds), 887 (19-year-olds) More detailed information on survey design and sampling is available at http://www.younglives.org.uk/content/our-research-methods

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face interview; Self-completion

Research instrument

The Older Cohort Household Questionnaire (age 19) includes sections on: - Parental background; Household and child education - Livelihoods and asset framework - Household food and non-food consumption and expenditure - Social capital; Economic changes and recent life history - Socio-economic status

The Older Cohort Child Questionnaire (age 19) includes sections on: - Parents and Caregiver update; Mobility - Subjective well-being - Education - Employment, earnings, and time-use - Feelings and attitudes - Household decision-making - Marital and living arrangements - Fertility; Anthropometry - Health and nutrition

The Older Cohort Cognitive Tests (age 19) includes - Mathematics test - Reading comprehension test

The Older Cohort Self-Administered Questionnaire (age 19) includes sections on: - Relationship with parents - Smoking, Violence, Alcohol, Sexual behaviour (administered in Peru only)

The Younger Cohort Household Questionnaire (age 12) includes sections on:
- Parental background - Household and child education - Livelihoods and asset framework - Household food and non-food consumption and expenditure - Social capital - Economic changes and recent life history - Socio-economic status - Health - Anthropometry (for the study child and a sibling) - Caregiver perceptions and attitudes

The Younger Cohort Child Questionnaire (age 12) includes sections on: - Schooling - Time-us - Health - Social networks - Feelings and attitudes

The Younger Cohort Cognitive Tests (age 12) include: - Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (administered to the study child and a sibling) - Mathematics test - Reading comprehension test. In Ethiopia and Peru only: a computerised cognitive skill (Executive Functioning) test administered on touch-screen tablet computers for the study child and a younger sibling. In Ethiopia only an additional English and Amharic reading test.

The Community Questionnaire (administered in the main communities where Young Lives children live) includes sections on: - General characteristics of the locality - Social environment - Access to services; Economy - Local prices - Social protection - Educational services - Health services; Migration

The Mini-community questionnaire (administered in communities into which one or study children moved) includes sections on: - General characteristics of the locality - Social environment - Access to Services - Economy - Local prices

In 1800, the population of the area of modern-day Pakistan was estimated to be just over 13 million. Population growth in the 19th century would be gradual in the region, rising to just 19 million at the turn of the century. In the early 1800s, the British Empire slowly consolidated power in the region, eventually controlling the region of Pakistan from the mid-19th century onwards, as part of the British Raj. From the 1930s on, the population's growth rate would increase as improvements in healthcare (particularly vaccination) and sanitation would lead to lower infant mortality rates and higher life expectancy. Independence In 1947, the Muslim-majority country of Pakistan gained independence from Britain, and split from the Hindu-majority country of India. In the next few years, upwards of ten million people migrated between the two nations, during a period that was blemished by widespread atrocities on both sides. Throughout this time, the region of Bangladesh was also a part Pakistan (as it also had a Muslim majority), known as East Pakistan; internal disputes between the two regions were persistent for over two decades, until 1971, when a short but bloody civil war resulted in Bangladesh's independence. Political disputes between Pakistan and India also created tension in the first few decades of independence, even boiling over into some relatively small-scale conflicts, although there was some economic progress and improvements in quality of life for Pakistan's citizens. The late 20th century was also characterized by several attempts to become democratic, but with intermittent periods of military rule. Between independence and the end of the century, Pakistan's population had grown more than four times in total. Pakistan today Since 2008, Pakistan has been a functioning democracy, with an emerging economy and increasing international prominence. Despite the emergence of a successful middle-class, this is prosperity is not reflected in all areas of the population as almost a quarter still live in poverty, and Pakistan ranks in the bottom 20% of countries according to the Human Development Index. In 2020, Pakistan is thought to have a total population of over 220 million people, making it the fifth-most populous country in the world.