Poverty Threshold Simulator
An interactive visualisation demonstrating that poverty thresholds are political choices, not neutral facts. Compare three measurement traditions — the Rowntree/JRF Minimum Income Standard (absolute), the Townsend/EU AROPE 60%-of-median approach (relative), and the DWP HBAI Before Housing Costs series (official UK statistics) — for any household composition.
Poverty Threshold Simulator
Drag the red line or adjust the slider below to explore how measurement choices define who counts as poor.
All three thresholds for this household — the same family is measured differently depending on which framework a government or researcher chooses:
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Income distribution chart showing the UK population. Active method: Relative 60%. Threshold: £31,500 per year for a household of 2 adults and 0 children in Rest of England. Approximately 20% of the simulated population fall below this poverty line.
Relative poverty — Townsend / EU AROPE tradition
Peter Townsend (1979) argued that poverty is necessarily relative: people are poor when excluded from the customary activities of their society. The EU's 'at risk of poverty' measure (AROPE) operationalises this as income below 60% of the national median, equivalised using the modified OECD scale. Critically, the threshold rises automatically as median incomes rise — poverty cannot be 'abolished' by growth alone if inequality persists.