Projects
Monitoring poverty and social exclusion
Combating poverty and social exclusion is a stated priority of this government. But success is not assured and reform inevitably takes time to have an effect. With the support of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion was published for the first time in 1998. It is updated annually and aims to provide an authoritative, yet independent, assessment of where matters stand on poverty and social exclusion. Through a set of fifty statistical indicators it tracks changes across a wide range of matters related to poverty and social exclusion. Most of the statistics cover the whole of the last decade.
Our latest annual monitoring report was published in December 2005.
View/download the executive summary.
View/download the full report.
Alternatively, to view all the graphs and indicators and much more on our poverty website, click here.
In addition, for those interested in more detail, we would also recommend the first (Monitoring poverty and social exclusion: Labour's Inheritance) report as this included a comprehensive literature review which is available as a hard copy priced £16.95+ £2.00 p&p, from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Finally, view/download our original report which set out about why Britain needs to use key indicators to monitor progress on poverty and social exclusion.
The chosen indicators have been grouped into a number of chapters (children, adults, etc), within which there are a number of subject themes (income, health, education, etc).
| Age group | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All ages | Children | Young adults | Adults | Older people | Community | ||
| Subjects | Income | P | P | P | P | P | |
| Work | P | P | |||||
| Education | P | P | P | ||||
| Health | P | P | P | P | |||
| Housing | P | ||||||
| Crime | P | ||||||
| Services | P | ||||||
| Social cohesion | P | P | P | ||||
Collectively, the material provides:
- An overview of a wide range of conditions connected with social exclusion and poverty, starting with income but stretching to health, education and training, the provision of services, working conditions and social participation.
- A narrative that sets out a view of what is important in each of the subject themes, effectively providing a justification for the selection of indicators.
- A statistical assessment of each indicator, showing current prevalence, how this has changed over time, and how it varies by social class and other factors. Where possible, points about the different and sometimes more extreme disadvantage suffered by ethnic minorities, by people with disabilities, or by lone parents is included among the key points that accompany each indicator.
While the number of people on low income, measured in various different ways, are naturally treated as an important aspect of poverty and social exclusion, this report stretches well beyond that.
The notion of poverty that has guided the development of this report is where people lack many of the opportunities that are available to the average citizen. Low income and limited expenditure, especially on essentials, will be indicative of this, but the report also includes many indicators of things that researchers have been found to be disproportionately associated with low income, for example, certain forms of ill-health and restricted access to services. This broad concept of poverty coincides with the emerging concept of social exclusion. Its great practical value is that widens the focus to include factors that may be thought to cause severe and chronic disadvantage. In the context of this report, this means that indicators connected with long term lack of paid work, or poor educational qualifications, can be included alongside more readily understood aspects of poverty.