What is an Absolute Poverty?

Welcome to the Investors Trading Academy talking glossary of financial terms and events.
Our word of the day is “Absolute Poverty”
Absolute poverty is defined as: a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services.
It's the lack of one or more basic needs over a period long enough that it endangers your life or can cause it harm. As opposed to relative poverty, it covers vital and biological needs such as food, water, clothing, basic housing or anything that looks like a decent roof over your head, and a minimum of sanitation.
The challenge of defining basic needs has been quite the same as that of defining absolute poverty, because everything becomes relative if the concept is pushed far enough. However, by considering basic needs as an absence of major harm, researchers started asking the right questions. From then, many experts have started to claim that mortality (death rates) should have a central place as a measure of poverty. You can’t get more down to earth than that!
But it’s not just about being alive, it’s about life expectancy. How long you can live and how much you can achieve during that time. Sixty years ago, after World War II, life expectancy in a good number of countries was around 30-35 years on average. That does sounds like a good reflection of absolute poverty.

By Barry Norman, Investors Trading Academy - ITA