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Poverty in Britain in 1904: An Early Social Survey Rediscovered

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Author Info
Ian Gazeley () (University of Sussex)
Andrew Newell () (University of Sussex and IZA)

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Abstract

Until now there have been no national estimates of the extent of poverty in Britain at the turn of the 20th century. This paper introduces a newly-discovered household budget data set for the early 1900s. These data are more representative of urban working households in Britain in the period than any other existing record, although they are not without deficiencies. We use these data to estimate urban poverty in the British Isles in 1904. Applying Bowley’s poverty line we find that about fifteen percent of people in urban working class households had income insufficient to meet minimum needs. This is close to Rowntree’s estimate of primary poverty for York 1899 and in the range that Bowley found in Northern towns in 1912- 3. This average masks a heavy concentration of poverty among the unskilled and those with large families.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 3046.

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Length: 29 pages
Date of creation: Sep 2007
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3046

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Related research
Keywords: poverty; Britain; 1904;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Income, and Wealth - - - Europe: Pre-1913
O15 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Bailey, Roy E & Hatton, Timothy J., 1999. "Seebohm Rowntree and the Post-War Poverty Puzzle," CEPR Discussion Papers 2147, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
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  1. Hatton, Timothy J. & Martin, Richard M., 2009. "Fertility Decline and the Heights of Children in Britain, 1886-1938," IZA Discussion Papers 4306, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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