ABSTRACT
When compared internationally, incomes in Denmark are very equally distributed. This chapter analyses the prevalence of low incomes in Denmark during the period from 1980 to 1995. It surveys briefly some earlier studies of low income in Denmark. The chapter then describes the data, and discusses the methods used to delimit the concept of economic poverty. It also surveys the aggregate development in the low income share, and goes into more detail concerning the development in the low income rate for different sub-groups in the population, i.e. by age, gender, family status and individual unemployment. The chapter includes a short description of the development when gross income is used as a supplement to the use of disposable income. It uses the longitudinal structure of the data to explore whether low income is a predominantly short term problem experienced by many individuals or a long term problem mainly related to a small group of people.
