Poverty, Wealth and Place in Britain, 1968-2005

1

Dorling, D., Rigby, J., Wheeler, B., Ballas, D.,
Thomas, B. (Sheffield)Fahmy, E., Gordon, D.
(Bristol) Lupton, R. (IoE London)

• Poverty, Wealth and Place in Britain, 1968-2005
• Funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation

2
Objectives Significance

• Research Question How has the geography of
  poverty and wealth in Britain changed over time?
• Research Aim To develop longitudinally
  consistent measures of poverty and wealth based
  upon secondary data sources which can then be
  applied to UK Census data at a small area level
  for the period 1971-2005

• Research Significance
• The first attempt to derive longitudinally
  consistent estimates of poverty and its spatial
  distribution spanning more than 40 years
• The first attempt to operationalise small-area
  measures of wealth in the UK

3
Data Sources

• Asset Wealth
• Tract-level data on housing asset ownership
  (Thomas Dorling, 2004)
• Exclusive Wealth
• Family Expenditure Survey data for the years
• 1970-72
• 1980-1
• 1990-92
• 2000-02

• Poverty Core Poverty
• 1968/9 Household Resources Standard of Living
  Survey (Townsend)
• 1983 Poor Britain Survey (Mack Lansley)
• 1990 Breadline Britain Survey (Gordon Pantazis)
• 1999 Poverty Social Exclusion Survey (Gordon et
  al.)

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Definitions

• Poverty
• Breadline method (Gordon, 1995) Households are
  poor if they have
• A low standard of living
• AND a low household income
• Core poverty
• A priori (Whelan et al., 2002) Households are
  poor if they
• Lack any key necessities
• AND have a low income (lt 70 median)
• AND are subjectively poor

• Exclusive Wealthy
• Theoretically derived (Veblen, Scott, 1994)
  Households able to self-exclude through private
  expenditure (eg. private schools, healthcare,
  domestic services) and conspicuous consumption
  (expensive holidays, cars, etc.)
• Asset Wealthy
• Household are wealthy if housing assets are above
  a threshold defined by
• Inheritance Tax threshold
• Share of national wealth accounted for by housing

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Overview of Methodology
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FES exclusive wealth predictors frequencies and
multivariate odds
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Predictors of Small-Area Poverty 1971-2001 (Odds
Ratios)
Logistic Regression odds ratios (Bexp) all
sig. at .05 level
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An Example Census Weightings for 1970-80
Breadline and Core Poverty
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Principal Findings

• 1970s
• Breadline and Core Poverty declined
• Breadline and Core Poverty declined
• 1980s
• Increase in asset wealthy households
• Decline in exclusive wealthy
• 1990s
• Continuing rise in breadline poverty, but
  concurrent decline in core poverty
• Increase in exclusive wealthy household

• Spatial Polarisation
• Social polarisation declined during the 1970s
• Poverty and wealth both became increasingly
  spatially concentrated during the 1980s and 1990s
• The proportion of middling households (neither
  rich nor poor) has declined steadily
• More than ever, rich and poor households lead
  separate lives

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The changing geography of core poverty, 1970 to
2000
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The changing geography of breadline poverty, 1970
to 2000
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The changing geography of asset wealthy
households, 1980 to 2000
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The changing geography of exclusive wealthy
households, 1980 to 2000
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The changing geography of ordinary households,
1980 to 2000
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Spatial polarisation of the population by tract
breadline poverty density, 1971-2001
Proportion of population living in tracts with
less than specified proportions of central
poverty rate as follows
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Spatial polarisation of the population by tract
asset wealth density, 1971-2001
Proportion of population living in tracts with
less than specified proportions of central asset
wealth rate as follows
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Local Indicators of Spatial Association for core
poor households, 1971-2001
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Local Indicators of Spatial Association for
exclusive wealthy households, 1971-2001
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Indicators of Spatial Dissimilarity
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The changing geography of breadline poverty in
Scotland, 1981-2001
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The changing geography of exclusive wealth in
Scotland, 1981-2001
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Dorling, D., Rigby, J., Wheeler, B., Ballas, D.,
Thomas, B. (Sheffield)Fahmy, E., Gordon, D.
(Bristol) Lupton, R. (IoE London)

• Poverty, Wealth and Place in Britain, 1968-2005
• Funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation