The big idea: Poverty is not just 'having little money'. How you define and measure poverty shapes who counts as poor and what you owe them — which is why it is a deeply political concept.
Absolute poverty
- absolute poverty: lacking the basics needed to survive
Relative poverty
- relative poverty: falling far below the normal standard in your own society
More than income: Poverty is multidimensional: it is about health, education and services too, not only income.
- Absolute poverty — lacking the basics needed to survive (food, clean water, shelter, minimum health); often set at an international poverty line.
- Relative poverty — falling far below the normal standard of living in your own society (e.g. below 60% of median income), so you cannot participate normally.
- Multidimensional poverty — deprivation across several areas at once: income, health, education, and access to services (water, sanitation, electricity).
- The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) — a measure that captures overlapping deprivations, not just low income.
How you measure poverty is a political choice: There is no single 'true' poverty line. Set the threshold low and few count as poor; set it higher, or measure relative poverty, and many more do.
Income alone misses people: Measure only income and you miss people who have some cash but no clean water, schooling or health care — which is why the multidimensional view matters.
The definition decides
- Who is counted.
- Who gets help.
- How much progress we claim.
- So measuring poverty is itself a political act, not a neutral technical one.
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The absolute–relative distinction shapes every debate about poverty: is poverty about bare survival or about not being able to live a normal life in your society?
And is low income the whole story, or must we look at health, education and services too?
Absolute poverty — the survival floor
Absolute poverty means lacking what you need to survive: enough food, clean water, basic shelter and health. It is measured against a fixed international poverty line (an income threshold), so it can be compared across the whole world and tracked over time. Its great strength is moral clarity — no one should fall below the line — and it is the focus of global targets to 'end extreme poverty'.
Relative poverty — falling behind your society
Relative poverty means falling far below the normal standard of living around you — even if you can survive, you cannot afford what most people take for granted, so you are shut out of normal social life. It rises and falls with a society's overall standard, so it never simply 'ends' with growth; it captures exclusion and dignity, which pure survival measures miss, but it is harder to compare across very different countries.
Case study — why the multidimensional view matters: Picture two households with the same low income. On an income-only measure they look identical — equally poor, or equally 'just above the line'.
Household 1
- Lives near a clean water supply
- Has a functioning school
- Has a health clinic
Household 2
- Must walk hours for dirty water
- Has no school within reach
- Has no clinic
What the MPI captures: Their real deprivation is completely different: the second household is far poorer in the ways that shape a life. A multidimensional measure like the MPI captures this by counting deprivations in health, education and living standards alongside income.
The HL lesson: Poverty is about capabilities and access, not just cash — so how we measure it decides whether we even see the people most in need.
The key point: Poverty is the lack of resources and capabilities for a minimally decent life. Absolute poverty is about bare survival against a fixed line; relative poverty is about falling far below your own society's norm.
Multidimensional and political: Poverty is multidimensional — income, health, education and services — so income-only measures miss much of it. Because the definition and threshold decide who counts as poor, measuring poverty is a political choice.
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Which matters more — absolute poverty (survival) or relative poverty (exclusion)? Should we measure poverty by income alone or by many dimensions? And where should the line be drawn? Weigh it — and recommend.
The case for the absolute / income measure
An absolute poverty line gives a clear, universal survival floor: it is simple, comparable across all countries, and lets the world track whether extreme deprivation is falling. It keeps the focus on the most urgent priority — no one should lack food, water or shelter — and avoids the vagueness of relative measures that shift with a society's average.
The case for the relative / multidimensional measure
But bare survival is not a decent life. Relative measures capture the exclusion of those who cannot participate normally in their society, and multidimensional measures like the MPI reveal deprivations in health, education and services that income alone hides. Poverty is about capabilities, not just cash, so a richer measure targets help where survival-only numbers miss it — though it is harder to compare and to agree on.
One view: absolute
- Measure absolute poverty by a clear income line
- End extreme deprivation first, and keep the number comparable
Another view: relative and multidimensional
- Exclusion and lack of health, education and services matter as much as cash
The HL judgement: Strong HL answers judge that both are needed: an absolute line to protect the survival floor and drive global targets, PLUS relative and multidimensional measures to capture exclusion and the deprivations income hides.
Why both: Relying on one alone either ignores the worst suffering or misses most of what poverty really is.
How understanding poverty comes up in Paper 3: Paper 3 stimulus might give poverty statistics, an income line, or a story of deprivation.
What to do with it
- Analyse WHICH kind of poverty it is: absolute or relative, income or multidimensional.
- Say what the measure captures and what it hides.
- Recommend: usually a combined measure, an absolute line PLUS relative and multidimensional indicators.
How Paper 3 rewards you (HL)
Understand
Show you understand the challenge and the stimulus material accurately.
base
Analyse
Break the challenge down — causes, actors, perspectives — using the material.
analyse
Recommend
Propose and justify a course of action — the Paper-3-specific skill.
recommend
Synthesise
Pull the material together into a judged, evaluated response.
top
Recommend how a government should measure poverty in order to target help effectively.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Common mistakes (Paper 3): 1. Treating poverty as only low income. It is multidimensional.
2. Confusing absolute and relative poverty. Survival vs falling behind your society.
3. Assuming the poverty line is neutral. Where you set it is a political choice.
4. Only describing. Analyse + recommend.
5. Picking one measure only. Combine absolute, relative and multidimensional.