Poverty

Poverty has historically been defined as some form of expression for material and/or financial hardship that results in the inability to meet basic human needs. The most publicly acceptable versions are focused on income- or resource-based definitions of poverty. These definitions include the following: absolute poverty (insufficient income to meet basic human needs) and relative poverty (a level of income that does not allow for consumption that meets community standards or goes below a particular percentage threshold of the total population, e.g., 25% or less of median income).

Recent scholars have suggested that social exclusion be also included among the definitions of poverty. Social exclusion can be a result of racial/ethnic discrimination, gender discrimination, geographic isolation, educational attainment, or other such sociodemographic characteristics that are associated ...