ABSTRACT
The measurement and analysis of poverty is a widely discussed issue and various definitions and concepts exist. The fact is, and what everybody agrees on: Too many people are living in poverty. According to the World Resource Institute 4 billion people – the majority of the world’s population – live in relative poverty, that means they have incomes below $3,000/year PPP 1 and constitute the so called base of the economic pyramid (Hammond et al. 2007, 3). The Copenhagen Declaration that resulted from the World Summit on Social Development in 1995, defines absolute poverty as ‘a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services’ (UN 1995, 41).
