Relationship between persistent poverty and health
About 2 mins
Key points
- Over a third of adults aged 18–55 who live in households in persistent poverty rate their health less-than-good (fair or poor), which is higher than for adults in non-persistent poverty and not in poverty.
- In the past decade, the relative ranking has remained stable: people in persistent poverty consistently report the poorest health, followed by those in non persistent poverty, with those not in poverty reporting the best health throughout the period.
Persistent poverty is a particularly important issue for our health, because the experience of prolonged periods of poverty has cumulative effects, for example the build up of chronic stress and impact of life events over time. Research on child poverty found that any exposure to poverty in childhood was associated with worse health, but the effects were more severe for children living in persistent poverty.
This chart shows the percentage of adults aged 18–55 in persistent poverty, non persistent poverty or not in poverty who report their health as less-than-good (fair’ or ‘poor’). Income is adjusted for household size and composition but not housing costs.
- People living in persistent poverty had the worst health of any of the three groups in 2023–24.
- In 2023–24, 34.4% of adults aged 18–55 years living in persistent poverty report less-than-good health.
- In 2023–24, 24.9% of adults in non-persistent poverty and 19.8% of adults not in poverty report less-than-good health.
- Between 2014–15 and 2023–24, the percentage of people who report less-than good health has increased.
- This ranking was constant over the time period covered: people in persistent poverty reported worse health than people in non-persistent poverty, and they, in turn, reported worse health than people who were not in poverty.
- The data presented here are weighted estimates from Understanding Society survey, a longitudinal survey of households in the UK.
- The population represented by the Understanding Society survey differs at inclusion waves – wave 1 (2009–10) and waves 6 (2014–15) and 14 (2023–24), when new households are recruited into the survey. These three waves are not fully comparable with the other waves, and observed differences may partly capture changes in study population.
- Self-rated health is measured on a five-point scale from ‘excellent’ to ‘poor’. Other options include ‘very good’, ‘good’, and ‘fair’.
- Individuals must have income for four consecutive years of income data to be included in these analysis.
- Persistent poverty is defined as a person living in a household experiencing poverty (a net household income below 60% of the median in that year) for at least three of the past four years.
- Non-persistent poverty is defined as people living in poverty in the current year of data but were not in poverty for three or more of the last four years.
- Not in poverty is defined as everyone else who is not in persistent or non persistent poverty.
- Income is equivalised, which means it is adjusted for household size to reflect economies of scale. For example, a household of four needs more income for the same standard of living as a household of one, but not four times as much.
Source: University of Essex – Institute for Social and Economic Research, Understanding Society: Waves 3–15, UK, 2012 to 2024.
