Skip to main content

The Geography of Poverty, Inequality and Wealth in the UK and Abroad: Because Enough Is Never Enough

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Global Labour in Distress, Volume II

Part of the book series: Palgrave Readers in Economics ((PRE))

  • 466 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter considers the temporal changes in levels of recorded poverty in Britain distinguishing between times of anecdotal reporting (1845–1901); the first national counts and geographical distribution descriptions (1895–1965); to the current era of an industry dedicated to poverty counting and cartography (1968–2008). The persistence to the geography of poverty over time is remarked upon and speculated over. In conclusion it is argued that it is important to understand the distribution of wealth to better understand poverty.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Abel-Smith, B., & Townsend, P. (1965). The Poor and the Poorest. Occasional Papers in Social Administration, 17, Bell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adamson, P. (2007). Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries. Innocenti Report Card 7, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, A. B., Corlyon, J., Maynard, A. K., Sutherland, H., & Trinder, C. G. (1981). Poverty in York: A Reanalysis of Rowntree’s 1950 Survey. Bulletin of Economic Research, 33, 59–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Booth, C. (1894). The Aged Poor in England and Wales. Macmillan and Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, C. (2002). Wealth and Poverty: On the Social Creation of Scarcity. Journal of Economic Issues, 36(2), 415–421.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. (1859). On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. John Murray.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, J. B., Sandstrom, S., Shorrocks, A., & Wolff, E. N. (2006). The World Distribution of Household Wealth. UNU-WIDER, Katajanokanlaituri 6 B 00160 Helsinki, Finland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorling, D. (2003), A Century of Progress? Inequalities in British Society, 1901–2000. In D. Gilbert, D. Matless, & B. Short (Eds.), Geographies of British Modernity: Space and Society in the Twentieth Century (Part 1, Chapter 2, pp. 31–53). Blackwells.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorling, D. (2004). Distressed Times and Areas: Poverty, Polarisation and Politics in England 1918–circa 1971. In A. R. H. Baker & M. Billinge (Eds.), Geographies of England: The North-South Divide, Material and Imagined. Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorling, D. (2006). Infant Mortality and Social Progress in Britain, 1905–2005, Chapter 11 of E. Garrett, C. Galley, N. Shelton, & R. Woods (Eds.), Infant Mortality. Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorling, D. (2010). Inequality: Why Social Inequality Persists. Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorling, D., Mitchell, R., Shaw, M., Orford, S., & Davey Smith, G. (2000). The Ghost of Christmas Past: Health Effects of Poverty in London in 1896 and 1991. BMJ, 7276(23–30), 1547–1551.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dorling, D., & Thomas, B. (2003). People and Places a 2001 census atlas. Bristol: Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorling, D., & Thomas, B. (2007). Identity in Britain: A cradle-to-grave atlas. Bristol: Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorling, D., Rigby, R., Wheeler, B., Ballas, D., Thomas, B., Fahmy, E., Gordon, D., & Lupton, R. (2007). Poverty, Wealth and Place in Britain, 1968 to 2005. Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engels, F. (1845 [1987]). The Condition of the Working Class in England. Penguin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galton, F. (1869 [1892]). Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into Its Laws and Consequences. Macmillan and Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glennerster, H. (2002). United States Poverty Studies and Poverty Measurement: The Past Twenty-Five Years. Social Service Review, (March), 83–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glennerster, H., Hills, J., Piachaud, D., & Webb, J. (2004). One Hundred Years of Poverty and Policy. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/eBooks/1859352227.pdf

  • Gordon, D., & Pantazis, C. (Eds.). (1997). Breadline Britain in the 1990s. Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, D., & Townsend, P. (Eds.). (2000). Breadline Europe: The Measurement of Poverty. Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, D., Adelman, L., Ashworth, K., Bradshaw, J., Levitas, R., Middleton, S., Pantazis, C., Patsios, D., Payne, S., Townsend, P., & Williams, J. (2000). Poverty and Social Exclusion in Britain. Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gregory, I., Dorling, D., & Southall, H. (2001). A Century of Inequality in England and Wales Using Standardised Geographical Units. Area, 33(3), 297–311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hatton, T. J., & Bailey, R. E. (2000). Seebohm Rowntree and the Post-War Poverty Puzzle. Economic History Review, 53(3), 517–543.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jargowsky, P. A. (2003). Concentration of Poverty Declines in the 1990s. Poverty and Race Research Action Council, 12(4), 1–2.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, S. (2000). Poverty and Welfare in England 1700–1850. Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kroll, L., Miller, M., & Serafin, T. (2009). The World’s Billionaires. [Online]. Retrieved April 19, 2009, from http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/11/worlds-richest-people-billionaires-2009-billionaires_land.html

  • MacKenzie, D. (1999). Eugenics and the Rise of Mathematical Statistics. In D. Dorling & S. Simpson (Eds.), Statistics in Society: The Arithmetic of Politics. Arnold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson, K. (1895). Contributions to the Mathematical Theory of Evolution-II. Skew Variation in Homogeneous Material. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series A, Mathematical, 186, 343–414.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowntree, B. S. (1901 [2000]). Poverty: A Study of Town Life. The Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowntree, B. S., & Lavers, G. R. (1951). Poverty and the Welfare State: A Third Social Survey of York Dealing Only with Economic Questions. Longmans.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J. (1994). Poverty & Wealth: Citizenship, Deprivation and Privilege. Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomkins, A. (2006). The Experience of Urban Poverty 1723–82: Parish, Charity and Credit. Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomkins, A., & King, S. (Eds.). (2003). The Poor in England 1700–1900: An Economy of Makeshifts. Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Townsend, P. (1979). Poverty in the United Kingdom: A Survey of Household Resources and Standards of Living. Penguin Books and Allen Lane.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Welshman, J. (2006). The Concept of the Unemployable. Economic History Review, 59(3), 578–606.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Danny Dorling .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Dorling, D., Pritchard, J. (2022). The Geography of Poverty, Inequality and Wealth in the UK and Abroad: Because Enough Is Never Enough. In: Goulart, P., Ramos, R., Ferrittu, G. (eds) Global Labour in Distress, Volume II. Palgrave Readers in Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89265-4_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89265-4_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-89264-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-89265-4

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics