essay about poverty causes and effects

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Causes of poverty

The “blame the poor” perspective is stereotypic and not applicable to all of the underclass. Not only are most poor people able and willing to work hard, they do so when given the chance. The real trouble has to do with such problems as minimum wages and lack of access to the education necessary for obtaining a better‐paying job.

More recently, sociologists have focused on other theories of poverty. One theory of poverty has to do with the flight of the middle class, including employers, from the cities and into the suburbs. This has limited the opportunities for the inner‐city poor to find adequate jobs. According to another theory, the poor would rather receive welfare payments than work in demeaning positions as maids or in fast‐food restaurants. As a result of this view, the welfare system has come under increasing attack in recent years.

Again, no simple explanations for or solutions to the problem of poverty exist. Although varying theories abound, sociologists will continue to pay attention to this issue in the years to come.

The effects of poverty

• Many infants born into poverty have a low birth weight, which is associated with many preventable mental and physical disabilities. Not only are these poor infants more likely to be irritable or sickly, they are also more likely to die before their first birthday.
• Children raised in poverty tend to miss school more often because of illness. These children also have a much higher rate of accidents than do other children, and they are twice as likely to have impaired vision and hearing, iron deficiency anemia, and higher than normal levels of lead in the blood, which can impair brain function.

Levels of stress in the family have also been shown to correlate with economic circumstances. Studies during economic recessions indicate that job loss and subsequent poverty are associated with violence in families, including child and elder abuse. Poor families experience much more stress than middle‐class families. Besides financial uncertainty, these families are more likely to be exposed to series of negative events and “bad luck,” including illness, depression, eviction, job loss, criminal victimization, and family death. Parents who experience hard economic times may become excessively punitive and erratic, issuing demands backed by insults, threats, and corporal punishment.

Homelessness , or extreme poverty, carries with it a particularly strong set of risks for families, especially children. Compared to children living in poverty but having homes, homeless children are less likely to receive proper nutrition and immunization. Hence, they experience more health problems. Homeless women experience higher rates of low‐birth‐weight babies, miscarriages, and infant mortality, probably due to not having access to adequate prenatal care for their babies. Homeless families experience even greater life stress than other families, including increased disruption in work, school, family relationships, and friendships.

Sociologists have been particularly concerned about the effects of poverty on the “black underclass,” the increasing numbers of jobless, welfare‐dependent African Americans trapped in inner‐city ghettos. Many of the industries (textiles, auto, steel) that previously offered employment to the black working class have shut down, while newer industries have relocated to the suburbs. Because most urban jobs either require advanced education or pay minimum wage, unemployment rates for inner‐city blacks are high.

Even though Hispanic Americans are almost as likely as African Americans to live in poverty, fewer inner‐city Hispanic neighborhoods have undergone the same massive changes as many black neighborhoods have. Middle and working class Hispanic families have not left their barrio, or urban Spanish‐speaking neighborhood, in large numbers, so most Hispanic cultural and social institutions there remain intact. In addition, local Hispanic‐owned businesses and low‐skill industries support the barrio with wage‐based, not welfare‐based, businesses.

Climbing out of poverty is difficult for anyone, perhaps because, at its worst, poverty can become a self‐perpetuating cycle. Children of poverty are at an extreme disadvantage in the job market; in turn, the lack of good jobs ensures continued poverty. The cycle ends up repeating itself until the pattern is somehow broken.

Feminist perspective on poverty

This feminization of poverty may be related to numerous changes in contemporary America. Increases in unwanted births, separations, and divorces have forced growing numbers of women to head poor households. Meanwhile, increases in divorced fathers avoiding child support coupled with reductions in welfare support have forced many of these women‐headed households to join the ranks of the underclass. Further, because wives generally live longer than their husbands, growing numbers of elderly women must live in poverty.

Feminists also attribute the feminization of poverty to women's vulnerability brought about by the patriarchal, sexist, and gender‐biased nature of Western society, which does not value protecting women's rights and wealth.

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Poverty Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on poverty essay.

“Poverty is the worst form of violence”. – Mahatma Gandhi.

How Poverty is Measured?

For measuring poverty United nations have devised two measures of poverty – Absolute & relative poverty.  Absolute poverty is used to measure poverty in developing countries like India. Relative poverty is used to measure poverty in developed countries like the USA. In absolute poverty, a line based on the minimum level of income has been created & is called a poverty line.  If per day income of a family is below this level, then it is poor or below the poverty line. If per day income of a family is above this level, then it is non-poor or above the poverty line. In India, the new poverty line is  Rs 32 in rural areas and Rs 47 in urban areas.

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Causes of Poverty

According to the Noble prize winner South African leader, Nelson Mandela – “Poverty is not natural, it is manmade”. The above statement is true as the causes of poverty are generally man-made. There are various causes of poverty but the most important is population. Rising population is putting the burden on the resources & budget of countries. Governments are finding difficult to provide food, shelter & employment to the rising population.

The other causes are- lack of education, war, natural disaster, lack of employment, lack of infrastructure, political instability, etc. For instance- lack of employment opportunities makes a person jobless & he is not able to earn enough to fulfill the basic necessities of his family & becomes poor. Lack of education compels a person for less paying jobs & it makes him poorer. Lack of infrastructure means there are no industries, banks, etc. in a country resulting in lack of employment opportunities. Natural disasters like flood, earthquake also contribute to poverty.

In some countries, especially African countries like Somalia, a long period of civil war has made poverty widespread. This is because all the resources & money is being spent in war instead of public welfare. Countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. are prone to natural disasters like cyclone, etc. These disasters occur every year causing poverty to rise.

Ill Effects of Poverty

Poverty affects the life of a poor family. A poor person is not able to take proper food & nutrition &his capacity to work reduces. Reduced capacity to work further reduces his income, making him poorer. Children from poor family never get proper schooling & proper nutrition. They have to work to support their family & this destroys their childhood. Some of them may also involve in crimes like theft, murder, robbery, etc. A poor person remains uneducated & is forced to live under unhygienic conditions in slums. There are no proper sanitation & drinking water facility in slums & he falls ill often &  his health deteriorates. A poor person generally dies an early death. So, all social evils are related to poverty.

Government Schemes to Remove Poverty

The government of India also took several measures to eradicate poverty from India. Some of them are – creating employment opportunities , controlling population, etc. In India, about 60% of the population is still dependent on agriculture for its livelihood. Government has taken certain measures to promote agriculture in India. The government constructed certain dams & canals in our country to provide easy availability of water for irrigation. Government has also taken steps for the cheap availability of seeds & farming equipment to promote agriculture. Government is also promoting farming of cash crops like cotton, instead of food crops. In cities, the government is promoting industrialization to create more jobs. Government has also opened  ‘Ration shops’. Other measures include providing free & compulsory education for children up to 14 years of age, scholarship to deserving students from a poor background, providing subsidized houses to poor people, etc.

Poverty is a social evil, we can also contribute to control it. For example- we can simply donate old clothes to poor people, we can also sponsor the education of a poor child or we can utilize our free time by teaching poor students. Remember before wasting food, somebody is still sleeping hungry.

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Causes of poverty essay sample, example.

When analyzing such a global issue, one should consider historical and cultural factors. Nations that are among the poorest in the world were once colonies, or areas from which richer countries exported slaves; also, some of these territories were drained of resources. Rare exceptions like Canada or Australia do not deny the fact that, for example, almost the entire continent of Africa is a problematic area in terms of poverty and hunger. This happened due to the fact that colonialism contributed to the establishment of conditions where people living in former colonies cannot access capital or education. In addition, there exist several hot spots in the world where wars and political instability also cause a significant decrease in the quality of life: Syria, Egypt, Ukraine, and so on ( The Borgen Project ).

Perhaps the most direct causal link exists between poverty and the balance between a country’s population density and its agricultural capabilities. Although such countries as the Netherlands or Belgium have a high density of population, their agricultural industry is based on mechanized farming and high-tech solutions, so poverty and hunger have no chance there. The same refers to other technologically-advanced countries. In contrast, Bangladesh, which has one of the world’s largest population densities (2,791 persons in a square mile) exists on the edge of extreme poverty—mostly because the majority of population is involved in low-efficient manual farming. On the other hand, there are countries in Africa with only about 80 persons per square mile, but because of low soil fertility, and the use of manual labor, these countries cannot boost their productivity and development ( povertyhci.weebly.com ).

Along with objective poverty factors, it is also important to consider social factors—in particular, psychological traits that many poor people possess. In many developed countries, poor people do not try to improve their financial conditions, relying on welfare payments provided to them by governments (CliffsNotes). Due to the lack of education and skills (also caused by the inability to pay for them), they cannot work at well-paid jobs, although they can still become maids, cleaners, postal workers, couriers, and so on. Doing so would enable such people to earn more money necessary for education and personal development, but they prefer to keep the status quo.

Reasons of poverty are numerous, and it is difficult to analyze the entire complex of causes of such a global issue. However, some of them are obvious: a colonial background, wars and political instability, dense population combined with low agricultural capabilities, and certain psychological traits of poor people. These factors help keep poverty in the world’s list of the most urgent problems.

“Top 5 Causes of Poverty.” The Borgen Project. N.p., 25 June 2013. Web. 21 May 2015.

“Poverty at Large: A Dark Spot in Humanity.”Http://povertyhci.weebly.com/. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2015.

“Causes and Effects of Poverty.” CliffNotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2015.

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Why Poverty Persists in America

A Pulitzer Prize-winning sociologist offers a new explanation for an intractable problem.

A mother and son living in a Walmart parking lot in North Dakota in 2012. Credit... Eugene Richards

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By Matthew Desmond

• Published March 9, 2023 Updated April 3, 2023

In the past 50 years, scientists have mapped the entire human genome and eradicated smallpox. Here in the United States, infant-mortality rates and deaths from heart disease have fallen by roughly 70 percent, and the average American has gained almost a decade of life. Climate change was recognized as an existential threat. The internet was invented.

On the problem of poverty, though, there has been no real improvement — just a long stasis. As estimated by the federal government’s poverty line, 12.6 percent of the U.S. population was poor in 1970; two decades later, it was 13.5 percent; in 2010, it was 15.1 percent; and in 2019, it was 10.5 percent. To graph the share of Americans living in poverty over the past half-century amounts to drawing a line that resembles gently rolling hills. The line curves slightly up, then slightly down, then back up again over the years, staying steady through Democratic and Republican administrations, rising in recessions and falling in boom years.

What accounts for this lack of progress? It cannot be chalked up to how the poor are counted: Different measures spit out the same embarrassing result. When the government began reporting the Supplemental Poverty Measure in 2011, designed to overcome many of the flaws of the Official Poverty Measure, including not accounting for regional differences in costs of living and government benefits, the United States officially gained three million more poor people. Possible reductions in poverty from counting aid like food stamps and tax benefits were more than offset by recognizing how low-income people were burdened by rising housing and health care costs.

The American poor have access to cheap, mass-produced goods, as every American does. But that doesn’t mean they can access what matters most.

Any fair assessment of poverty must confront the breathtaking march of material progress. But the fact that standards of living have risen across the board doesn’t mean that poverty itself has fallen. Forty years ago, only the rich could afford cellphones. But cellphones have become more affordable over the past few decades, and now most Americans have one, including many poor people. This has led observers like Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill, senior fellows at the Brookings Institution, to assert that “access to certain consumer goods,” like TVs, microwave ovens and cellphones, shows that “the poor are not quite so poor after all.”

No, it doesn’t. You can’t eat a cellphone. A cellphone doesn’t grant you stable housing, affordable medical and dental care or adequate child care. In fact, as things like cellphones have become cheaper, the cost of the most necessary of life’s necessities, like health care and rent, has increased. From 2000 to 2022 in the average American city, the cost of fuel and utilities increased by 115 percent. The American poor, living as they do in the center of global capitalism, have access to cheap, mass-produced goods, as every American does. But that doesn’t mean they can access what matters most. As Michael Harrington put it 60 years ago: “It is much easier in the United States to be decently dressed than it is to be decently housed, fed or doctored.”

Why, then, when it comes to poverty reduction, have we had 50 years of nothing? When I first started looking into this depressing state of affairs, I assumed America’s efforts to reduce poverty had stalled because we stopped trying to solve the problem. I bought into the idea, popular among progressives, that the election of President Ronald Reagan (as well as that of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom) marked the ascendancy of market fundamentalism, or “neoliberalism,” a time when governments cut aid to the poor, lowered taxes and slashed regulations. If American poverty persisted, I thought, it was because we had reduced our spending on the poor. But I was wrong.

Reagan expanded corporate power, deeply cut taxes on the rich and rolled back spending on some antipoverty initiatives, especially in housing. But he was unable to make large-scale, long-term cuts to many of the programs that make up the American welfare state. Throughout Reagan’s eight years as president, antipoverty spending grew, and it continued to grow after he left office. Spending on the nation’s 13 largest means-tested programs — aid reserved for Americans who fall below a certain income level — went from $1,015 a person the year Reagan was elected president to $3,419 a person one year into Donald Trump’s administration, a 237 percent increase.

Most of this increase was due to health care spending, and Medicaid in particular. But even if we exclude Medicaid from the calculation, we find that federal investments in means-tested programs increased by 130 percent from 1980 to 2018, from $630 to $1,448 per person.

“Neoliberalism” is now part of the left’s lexicon, but I looked in vain to find it in the plain print of federal budgets, at least as far as aid to the poor was concerned. There is no evidence that the United States has become stingier over time. The opposite is true.

This makes the country’s stalled progress on poverty even more baffling. Decade after decade, the poverty rate has remained flat even as federal relief has surged.

If we have more than doubled government spending on poverty and achieved so little, one reason is that the American welfare state is a leaky bucket. Take welfare, for example: When it was administered through the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program, almost all of its funds were used to provide single-parent families with cash assistance. But when President Bill Clinton reformed welfare in 1996, replacing the old model with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), he transformed the program into a block grant that gives states considerable leeway in deciding how to distribute the money. As a result, states have come up with rather creative ways to spend TANF dollars. Arizona has used welfare money to pay for abstinence-only sex education. Pennsylvania diverted TANF funds to anti-abortion crisis-pregnancy centers. Maine used the money to support a Christian summer camp. Nationwide, for every dollar budgeted for TANF in 2020, poor families directly received just 22 cents.

We’ve approached the poverty question by pointing to poor people themselves, when we should have been focusing on exploitation.

A fair amount of government aid earmarked for the poor never reaches them. But this does not fully solve the puzzle of why poverty has been so stubbornly persistent, because many of the country’s largest social-welfare programs distribute funds directly to people. Roughly 85 percent of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program budget is dedicated to funding food stamps themselves, and almost 93 percent of Medicaid dollars flow directly to beneficiaries.

There are, it would seem, deeper structural forces at play, ones that have to do with the way the American poor are routinely taken advantage of. The primary reason for our stalled progress on poverty reduction has to do with the fact that we have not confronted the unrelenting exploitation of the poor in the labor, housing and financial markets.

As a theory of poverty, “exploitation” elicits a muddled response, causing us to think of course and but, no in the same instant. The word carries a moral charge, but social scientists have a fairly coolheaded way to measure exploitation: When we are underpaid relative to the value of what we produce, we experience labor exploitation; when we are overcharged relative to the value of something we purchase, we experience consumer exploitation. For example, if a family paid $1,000 a month to rent an apartment with a market value of $20,000, that family would experience a higher level of renter exploitation than a family who paid the same amount for an apartment with a market valuation of $100,000. When we don’t own property or can’t access credit, we become dependent on people who do and can, which in turn invites exploitation, because a bad deal for you is a good deal for me.

Our vulnerability to exploitation grows as our liberty shrinks. Because labor laws often fail to protect undocumented workers in practice, more than a third are paid below minimum wage, and nearly 85 percent are not paid overtime. Many of us who are U.S. citizens, or who crossed borders through official checkpoints, would not work for these wages. We don’t have to. If they migrate here as adults, those undocumented workers choose the terms of their arrangement. But just because desperate people accept and even seek out exploitative conditions doesn’t make those conditions any less exploitative. Sometimes exploitation is simply the best bad option.

Consider how many employers now get one over on American workers. The United States offers some of the lowest wages in the industrialized world. A larger share of workers in the United States make “low pay” — earning less than two-thirds of median wages — than in any other country belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. According to the group, nearly 23 percent of American workers labor in low-paying jobs, compared with roughly 17 percent in Britain, 11 percent in Japan and 5 percent in Italy. Poverty wages have swollen the ranks of the American working poor, most of whom are 35 or older.

One popular theory for the loss of good jobs is deindustrialization, which caused the shuttering of factories and the hollowing out of communities that had sprung up around them. Such a passive word, “deindustrialization” — leaving the impression that it just happened somehow, as if the country got deindustrialization the way a forest gets infested by bark beetles. But economic forces framed as inexorable, like deindustrialization and the acceleration of global trade, are often helped along by policy decisions like the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, which made it easier for companies to move their factories to Mexico and contributed to the loss of hundreds of thousands of American jobs. The world has changed, but it has changed for other economies as well. Yet Belgium and Canada and many other countries haven’t experienced the kind of wage stagnation and surge in income inequality that the United States has.

Those countries managed to keep their unions. We didn’t. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, nearly a third of all U.S. workers carried union cards. These were the days of the United Automobile Workers, led by Walter Reuther, once savagely beaten by Ford’s brass-knuckle boys, and of the mighty American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations that together represented around 15 million workers, more than the population of California at the time.

In their heyday, unions put up a fight. In 1970 alone, 2.4 million union members participated in work stoppages, wildcat strikes and tense standoffs with company heads. The labor movement fought for better pay and safer working conditions and supported antipoverty policies. Their efforts paid off for both unionized and nonunionized workers, as companies like Eastman Kodak were compelled to provide generous compensation and benefits to their workers to prevent them from organizing. By one estimate, the wages of nonunionized men without a college degree would be 8 percent higher today if union strength remained what it was in the late 1970s, a time when worker pay climbed, chief-executive compensation was reined in and the country experienced the most economically equitable period in modern history.

It is important to note that Old Labor was often a white man’s refuge. In the 1930s, many unions outwardly discriminated against Black workers or segregated them into Jim Crow local chapters. In the 1960s, unions like the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America enforced segregation within their ranks. Unions harmed themselves through their self-defeating racism and were further weakened by a changing economy. But organized labor was also attacked by political adversaries. As unions flagged, business interests sensed an opportunity. Corporate lobbyists made deep inroads in both political parties, beginning a public-relations campaign that pressured policymakers to roll back worker protections.

A national litmus test arrived in 1981, when 13,000 unionized air traffic controllers left their posts after contract negotiations with the Federal Aviation Administration broke down. When the workers refused to return, Reagan fired all of them. The public’s response was muted, and corporate America learned that it could crush unions with minimal blowback. And so it went, in one industry after another.

Today almost all private-sector employees (94 percent) are without a union, though roughly half of nonunion workers say they would organize if given the chance. They rarely are. Employers have at their disposal an arsenal of tactics designed to prevent collective bargaining, from hiring union-busting firms to telling employees that they could lose their jobs if they vote yes. Those strategies are legal, but companies also make illegal moves to block unions, like disciplining workers for trying to organize or threatening to close facilities. In 2016 and 2017, the National Labor Relations Board charged 42 percent of employers with violating federal law during union campaigns. In nearly a third of cases, this involved illegally firing workers for organizing.

Corporate lobbyists told us that organized labor was a drag on the economy — that once the companies had cleared out all these fusty, lumbering unions, the economy would rev up, raising everyone’s fortunes. But that didn’t come to pass. The negative effects of unions have been wildly overstated, and there is now evidence that unions play a role in increasing company productivity, for example by reducing turnover. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics measures productivity as how efficiently companies turn inputs (like materials and labor) into outputs (like goods and services). Historically, productivity, wages and profits rise and fall in lock step. But the American economy is less productive today than it was in the post-World War II period, when unions were at peak strength. The economies of other rich countries have slowed as well, including those with more highly unionized work forces, but it is clear that diluting labor power in America did not unleash economic growth or deliver prosperity to more people. “We were promised economic dynamism in exchange for inequality,” Eric Posner and Glen Weyl write in their book “Radical Markets.” “We got the inequality, but dynamism is actually declining.”

As workers lost power, their jobs got worse. For several decades after World War II, ordinary workers’ inflation-adjusted wages (known as “real wages”) increased by 2 percent each year. But since 1979, real wages have grown by only 0.3 percent a year. Astonishingly, workers with a high school diploma made 2.7 percent less in 2017 than they would have in 1979, adjusting for inflation. Workers without a diploma made nearly 10 percent less.

Lousy, underpaid work is not an indispensable, if regrettable, byproduct of capitalism, as some business defenders claim today. (This notion would have scandalized capitalism’s earliest defenders. John Stuart Mill, arch advocate of free people and free markets, once said that if widespread scarcity was a hallmark of capitalism, he would become a communist.) But capitalism is inherently about owners trying to give as little, and workers trying to get as much, as possible. With unions largely out of the picture, corporations have chipped away at the conventional midcentury work arrangement, which involved steady employment, opportunities for advancement and raises and decent pay with some benefits.

As the sociologist Gerald Davis has put it: Our grandparents had careers. Our parents had jobs. We complete tasks. Or at least that has been the story of the American working class and working poor.

Poor Americans aren’t just exploited in the labor market. They face consumer exploitation in the housing and financial markets as well.

There is a long history of slum exploitation in America. Money made slums because slums made money. Rent has more than doubled over the past two decades, rising much faster than renters’ incomes. Median rent rose from $483 in 2000 to $1,216 in 2021. Why have rents shot up so fast? Experts tend to offer the same rote answers to this question. There’s not enough housing supply, they say, and too much demand. Landlords must charge more just to earn a decent rate of return. Must they? How do we know?

We need more housing; no one can deny that. But rents have jumped even in cities with plenty of apartments to go around. At the end of 2021, almost 19 percent of rental units in Birmingham, Ala., sat vacant, as did 12 percent of those in Syracuse, N.Y. Yet rent in those areas increased by roughly 14 percent and 8 percent, respectively, over the previous two years. National data also show that rental revenues have far outpaced property owners’ expenses in recent years, especially for multifamily properties in poor neighborhoods. Rising rents are not simply a reflection of rising operating costs. There’s another dynamic at work, one that has to do with the fact that poor people — and particularly poor Black families — don’t have much choice when it comes to where they can live. Because of that, landlords can overcharge them, and they do.

A study I published with Nathan Wilmers found that after accounting for all costs, landlords operating in poor neighborhoods typically take in profits that are double those of landlords operating in affluent communities. If down-market landlords make more, it’s because their regular expenses (especially their mortgages and property-tax bills) are considerably lower than those in upscale neighborhoods. But in many cities with average or below-average housing costs — think Buffalo, not Boston — rents in the poorest neighborhoods are not drastically lower than rents in the middle-class sections of town. From 2015 to 2019, median monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the Indianapolis metropolitan area was $991; it was $816 in neighborhoods with poverty rates above 40 percent, just around 17 percent less. Rents are lower in extremely poor neighborhoods, but not by as much as you would think.

Yet where else can poor families live? They are shut out of homeownership because banks are disinclined to issue small-dollar mortgages, and they are also shut out of public housing, which now has waiting lists that stretch on for years and even decades. Struggling families looking for a safe, affordable place to live in America usually have but one choice: to rent from private landlords and fork over at least half their income to rent and utilities. If millions of poor renters accept this state of affairs, it’s not because they can’t afford better alternatives; it’s because they often aren’t offered any.

You can read injunctions against usury in the Vedic texts of ancient India, in the sutras of Buddhism and in the Torah. Aristotle and Aquinas both rebuked it. Dante sent moneylenders to the seventh circle of hell. None of these efforts did much to stem the practice, but they do reveal that the unprincipled act of trapping the poor in a cycle of debt has existed at least as long as the written word. It might be the oldest form of exploitation after slavery. Many writers have depicted America’s poor as unseen, shadowed and forgotten people: as “other” or “invisible.” But markets have never failed to notice the poor, and this has been particularly true of the market for money itself.

The deregulation of the banking system in the 1980s heightened competition among banks. Many responded by raising fees and requiring customers to carry minimum balances. In 1977, over a third of banks offered accounts with no service charge. By the early 1990s, only 5 percent did. Big banks grew bigger as community banks shuttered, and in 2021, the largest banks in America charged customers almost $11 billion in overdraft fees. Previous research showed that just 9 percent of account holders paid 84 percent of these fees. Who were the unlucky 9 percent? Customers who carried an average balance of less than $350. The poor were made to pay for their poverty.

In 2021, the average fee for overdrawing your account was $33.58. Because banks often issue multiple charges a day, it’s not uncommon to overdraw your account by $20 and end up paying $200 for it. Banks could (and do) deny accounts to people who have a history of overextending their money, but those customers also provide a steady revenue stream for some of the most powerful financial institutions in the world.

Every year: almost $11 billion in overdraft fees, $1.6 billion in check-cashing fees and up to $8.2 billion in payday-loan fees.

According to the F.D.I.C., one in 19 U.S. households had no bank account in 2019, amounting to more than seven million families. Compared with white families, Black and Hispanic families were nearly five times as likely to lack a bank account. Where there is exclusion, there is exploitation. Unbanked Americans have created a market, and thousands of check-cashing outlets now serve that market. Check-cashing stores generally charge from 1 to 10 percent of the total, depending on the type of check. That means that a worker who is paid $10 an hour and takes a $1,000 check to a check-cashing outlet will pay $10 to $100 just to receive the money he has earned, effectively losing one to 10 hours of work. (For many, this is preferable to the less-predictable exploitation by traditional banks, with their automatic overdraft fees. It’s the devil you know.) In 2020, Americans spent $1.6 billion just to cash checks. If the poor had a costless way to access their own money, over a billion dollars would have remained in their pockets during the pandemic-induced recession.

Poverty can mean missed payments, which can ruin your credit. But just as troublesome as bad credit is having no credit score at all, which is the case for 26 million adults in the United States. Another 19 million possess a credit history too thin or outdated to be scored. Having no credit (or bad credit) can prevent you from securing an apartment, buying insurance and even landing a job, as employers are increasingly relying on credit checks during the hiring process. And when the inevitable happens — when you lose hours at work or when the car refuses to start — the payday-loan industry steps in.

For most of American history, regulators prohibited lending institutions from charging exorbitant interest on loans. Because of these limits, banks kept interest rates between 6 and 12 percent and didn’t do much business with the poor, who in a pinch took their valuables to the pawnbroker or the loan shark. But the deregulation of the banking sector in the 1980s ushered the money changers back into the temple by removing strict usury limits. Interest rates soon reached 300 percent, then 500 percent, then 700 percent. Suddenly, some people were very interested in starting businesses that lent to the poor. In recent years, 17 states have brought back strong usury limits, capping interest rates and effectively prohibiting payday lending. But the trade thrives in most places. The annual percentage rate for a two-week $300 loan can reach 460 percent in California, 516 percent in Wisconsin and 664 percent in Texas.

Roughly a third of all payday loans are now issued online, and almost half of borrowers who have taken out online loans have had lenders overdraw their bank accounts. The average borrower stays indebted for five months, paying $520 in fees to borrow $375. Keeping people indebted is, of course, the ideal outcome for the payday lender. It’s how they turn a $15 profit into a $150 one. Payday lenders do not charge high fees because lending to the poor is risky — even after multiple extensions, most borrowers pay up. Lenders extort because they can.

Every year: almost $11 billion in overdraft fees, $1.6 billion in check-cashing fees and up to $8.2 billion in payday-loan fees. That’s more than $55 million in fees collected predominantly from low-income Americans each day — not even counting the annual revenue collected by pawnshops and title loan services and rent-to-own schemes. When James Baldwin remarked in 1961 how “extremely expensive it is to be poor,” he couldn’t have imagined these receipts.

“Predatory inclusion” is what the historian Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor calls it in her book “Race for Profit,” describing the longstanding American tradition of incorporating marginalized people into housing and financial schemes through bad deals when they are denied good ones. The exclusion of poor people from traditional banking and credit systems has forced them to find alternative ways to cash checks and secure loans, which has led to a normalization of their exploitation. This is all perfectly legal, after all, and subsidized by the nation’s richest commercial banks. The fringe banking sector would not exist without lines of credit extended by the conventional one. Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase bankroll payday lenders like Advance America and Cash America. Everybody gets a cut.

Poverty isn’t simply the condition of not having enough money. It’s the condition of not having enough choice and being taken advantage of because of that. When we ignore the role that exploitation plays in trapping people in poverty, we end up designing policy that is weak at best and ineffective at worst. For example, when legislation lifts incomes at the bottom without addressing the housing crisis, those gains are often realized instead by landlords, not wholly by the families the legislation was intended to help. A 2019 study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found that when states raised minimum wages, families initially found it easier to pay rent. But landlords quickly responded to the wage bumps by increasing rents, which diluted the effect of the policy. This happened after the pandemic rescue packages, too: When wages began to rise in 2021 after worker shortages, rents rose as well, and soon people found themselves back where they started or worse.

Antipoverty programs work. Each year, millions of families are spared the indignities and hardships of severe deprivation because of these government investments. But our current antipoverty programs cannot abolish poverty by themselves. The Johnson administration started the War on Poverty and the Great Society in 1964. These initiatives constituted a bundle of domestic programs that included the Food Stamp Act, which made food aid permanent; the Economic Opportunity Act, which created Job Corps and Head Start; and the Social Security Amendments of 1965, which founded Medicare and Medicaid and expanded Social Security benefits. Nearly 200 pieces of legislation were signed into law in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s first five years in office, a breathtaking level of activity. And the result? Ten years after the first of these programs were rolled out in 1964, the share of Americans living in poverty was half what it was in 1960.

But the War on Poverty and the Great Society were started during a time when organized labor was strong, incomes were climbing, rents were modest and the fringe banking industry as we know it today didn’t exist. Today multiple forms of exploitation have turned antipoverty programs into something like dialysis, a treatment designed to make poverty less lethal, not to make it disappear.

This means we don’t just need deeper antipoverty investments. We need different ones, policies that refuse to partner with poverty, policies that threaten its very survival. We need to ensure that aid directed at poor people stays in their pockets, instead of being captured by companies whose low wages are subsidized by government benefits, or by landlords who raise the rents as their tenants’ wages rise, or by banks and payday-loan outlets who issue exorbitant fines and fees. Unless we confront the many forms of exploitation that poor families face, we risk increasing government spending only to experience another 50 years of sclerosis in the fight against poverty.

The best way to address labor exploitation is to empower workers. A renewed contract with American workers should make organizing easy. As things currently stand, unionizing a workplace is incredibly difficult. Under current labor law, workers who want to organize must do so one Amazon warehouse or one Starbucks location at a time. We have little chance of empowering the nation’s warehouse workers and baristas this way. This is why many new labor movements are trying to organize entire sectors. The Fight for $15 campaign, led by the Service Employees International Union, doesn’t focus on a single franchise (a specific McDonald’s store) or even a single company (McDonald’s) but brings together workers from several fast-food chains. It’s a new kind of labor power, and one that could be expanded: If enough workers in a specific economic sector — retail, hotel services, nursing — voted for the measure, the secretary of labor could establish a bargaining panel made up of representatives elected by the workers. The panel could negotiate with companies to secure the best terms for workers across the industry. This is a way to organize all Amazon warehouses and all Starbucks locations in a single go.

Sectoral bargaining, as it’s called, would affect tens of millions of Americans who have never benefited from a union of their own, just as it has improved the lives of workers in Europe and Latin America. The idea has been criticized by members of the business community, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has raised concerns about the inflexibility and even the constitutionality of sectoral bargaining, as well as by labor advocates, who fear that industrywide policies could nullify gains that existing unions have made or could be achieved only if workers make other sacrifices. Proponents of the idea counter that sectoral bargaining could even the playing field, not only between workers and bosses, but also between companies in the same sector that would no longer be locked into a race to the bottom, with an incentive to shortchange their work force to gain a competitive edge. Instead, the companies would be forced to compete over the quality of the goods and services they offer. Maybe we would finally reap the benefits of all that economic productivity we were promised.

We must also expand the housing options for low-income families. There isn’t a single right way to do this, but there is clearly a wrong way: the way we’re doing it now. One straightforward approach is to strengthen our commitment to the housing programs we already have. Public housing provides affordable homes to millions of Americans, but it’s drastically underfunded relative to the need. When the wealthy township of Cherry Hill, N.J., opened applications for 29 affordable apartments in 2021, 9,309 people applied. The sky-high demand should tell us something, though: that affordable housing is a life changer, and families are desperate for it.

We could also pave the way for more Americans to become homeowners, an initiative that could benefit poor, working-class and middle-class families alike — as well as scores of young people. Banks generally avoid issuing small-dollar mortgages, not because they’re riskier — these mortgages have the same delinquency rates as larger mortgages — but because they’re less profitable. Over the life of a mortgage, interest on $1 million brings in a lot more money than interest on $75,000. This is where the federal government could step in, providing extra financing to build on-ramps to first-time homeownership. In fact, it already does so in rural America through the 502 Direct Loan Program, which has moved more than two million families into their own homes. These loans, fully guaranteed and serviced by the Department of Agriculture, come with low interest rates and, for very poor families, cover the entire cost of the mortgage, nullifying the need for a down payment. Last year, the average 502 Direct Loan was for $222,300 but cost the government only $10,370 per loan, chump change for such a durable intervention. Expanding a program like this into urban communities would provide even more low- and moderate-income families with homes of their own.

We should also ensure fair access to capital. Banks should stop robbing the poor and near-poor of billions of dollars each year, immediately ending exorbitant overdraft fees. As the legal scholar Mehrsa Baradaran has pointed out, when someone overdraws an account, banks could simply freeze the transaction or could clear a check with insufficient funds, providing customers a kind of short-term loan with a low interest rate of, say, 1 percent a day.

States should rein in payday-lending institutions and insist that lenders make it clear to potential borrowers what a loan is ultimately likely to cost them. Just as fast-food restaurants must now publish calorie counts next to their burgers and shakes, payday-loan stores should publish the average overall cost of different loans. When Texas adopted disclosure rules, residents took out considerably fewer bad loans. If Texas can do this, why not California or Wisconsin? Yet to stop financial exploitation, we need to expand, not limit, low-income Americans’ access to credit. Some have suggested that the government get involved by having the U.S. Postal Service or the Federal Reserve issue small-dollar loans. Others have argued that we should revise government regulations to entice commercial banks to pitch in. Whatever our approach, solutions should offer low-income Americans more choice, a way to end their reliance on predatory lending institutions that can get away with robbery because they are the only option available.

In Tommy Orange’s novel, “There There,” a man trying to describe the problem of suicides on Native American reservations says: “Kids are jumping out the windows of burning buildings, falling to their deaths. And we think the problem is that they’re jumping.” The poverty debate has suffered from a similar kind of myopia. For the past half-century, we’ve approached the poverty question by pointing to poor people themselves — posing questions about their work ethic, say, or their welfare benefits — when we should have been focusing on the fire. The question that should serve as a looping incantation, the one we should ask every time we drive past a tent encampment, those tarped American slums smelling of asphalt and bodies, or every time we see someone asleep on the bus, slumped over in work clothes, is simply: Who benefits? Not: Why don’t you find a better job? Or: Why don’t you move? Or: Why don’t you stop taking out payday loans? But: Who is feeding off this?

Those who have amassed the most power and capital bear the most responsibility for America’s vast poverty: political elites who have utterly failed low-income Americans over the past half-century; corporate bosses who have spent and schemed to prioritize profits over families; lobbyists blocking the will of the American people with their self-serving interests; property owners who have exiled the poor from entire cities and fueled the affordable-housing crisis. Acknowledging this is both crucial and deliciously absolving; it directs our attention upward and distracts us from all the ways (many unintentional) that we — we the secure, the insured, the housed, the college-educated, the protected, the lucky — also contribute to the problem.

Corporations benefit from worker exploitation, sure, but so do consumers, who buy the cheap goods and services the working poor produce, and so do those of us directly or indirectly invested in the stock market. Landlords are not the only ones who benefit from housing exploitation; many homeowners do, too, their property values propped up by the collective effort to make housing scarce and expensive. The banking and payday-lending industries profit from the financial exploitation of the poor, but so do those of us with free checking accounts, as those accounts are subsidized by billions of dollars in overdraft fees.

Living our daily lives in ways that express solidarity with the poor could mean we pay more; anti-exploitative investing could dampen our stock portfolios. By acknowledging those costs, we acknowledge our complicity. Unwinding ourselves from our neighbors’ deprivation and refusing to live as enemies of the poor will require us to pay a price. It’s the price of our restored humanity and renewed country.

Matthew Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University and a contributing writer for the magazine. His latest book, “Poverty, by America,” from which this article is adapted, is being published on March 21 by Crown.

An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the legal protections for undocumented workers. They are afforded rights under U.S. labor laws, though in practice those laws often fail to protect them.

An earlier version of this article implied an incorrect date for a statistic about overdraft fees. The research was conducted between 2005 and 2012, not in 2021.

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Cause and Effect of Poverty Research Paper

Effects of poverty on health, effects of poverty on educational attainment, effects of poverty on migration patterns, works cited.

Poverty can be described in a number of ways. For example, the disparities in income and wealth are considered as a sign of poverty since the state is related to issues of scarcity and allocation of resources and influence.

Although poverty is most prominent among developing countries, studies indicate that the condition is also noticeable among the developed countries. Poverty may also be defined as the combined status of poor individuals (John & Tigani 207).

Poverty affects the social, economic and political welfare of the society in many ways. This paper will therefore discuss the cause and effect of poverty with regards to the impact of poverty on: health; educational attainment; and migration patterns.

For majority of individuals, the harmful effects of economic poverty on health are worsened by disparity associated with racial, sex, disability, HIV infection and other aspects related with social status. Therefore, efforts that aim entirely on economic poverty may have restricted efficiency for supporting health.

Internationally, poor health also can result to perpetual poverty. Since the health sector has limited influence over other factors that affect the health conditions such as housing, education, environmental hazards and food supply, it encounters the realistic challenge of ascertaining how to coordinate with other sectors to break the vicious cycle of poverty- illness-poverty.

A number of effects of poverty- as enumerated above- can also cause of poverty, thus generating a cycle of poverty and complicating the matter even more: These comprise of extremism; depression; human trafficking; hunger; illiteracy, suicide; and drug abuse, among others (John & Tigani 208).

Poverty in childhood wields its effect all through the life course and is easily passed on to consequent generations. This transmission takes place via maternal health before and all through pregnancy. A Lower birth weight of a pregnant woman, influenced by the social and economic condition of her family, has a direct impact on the weight of the baby after birth.

Maternal height is among the major factors that determine the weight of an infant after birth. Other than the influences of genetics on maternal weight, poverty and low social and economic conditions of the immediate family of the mother have a strong effect via early childhood diet.

A number of studies have shown that the height of an expectant woman is directly related with the social status of her family. For example, South Asian women residing in UK are shorter than European women.

Poverty and low social and economic status are related with poor mental health among women and mental stress and ill health have been identified as outcomes of poverty among these women. Women from poor background have less weight during pregnancy.

They also suffer from genital diseases, have inferior micronutrient and are likely to smoke heavily. With respect to social disadvantage and mental health of children and youth, there is a marked similarity between emotional problems and poverty.

The prevalence of certain conditions such as bed wetting and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is quite elevated among poor children. According to a study done in Canada, over 21% of children from poor families lived with a depressed close relative compared to 5% among children in high income cohort.

Also, the study found that there was a high prevalence of suicide among youth from poor backgrounds. In addition, child care, a key factor in mental health of a child, is highly affected by low socio-economic status and explicit aspects such as dejection and debt are rife among poor parents.

Social risk aspects tend to clump together. The effect of clumping of social risk aspects on smoking and feeding patterns is shown through a study involving a sample of smoking families in the West Midlands who had infants aged below three months. The effects of smoking during pregnancy were analysed by Maritz and Harding.

The study found that the cigarette consumption and infant exposure to cigarette smoke these households increased steadily as their income levels dropped. These findings are consistent with the conventional knowledge that youth from poor families tend to be heavy smokers than those from well-off families.

In addition, drug abuse and consumption of alcohol is higher among youth from poor families than their rich counterparts. At the same time, Wojcicki focused on the condition of a woman before and during the pregnancy and the influence of depression on an infant because poverty can make a woman depressed.

The level of education attained by a mother is identified as a key marker of child health in both high and low income countries. Access to education is determined by income of the household in most countries (Sachs 3). The educational attainment of children from poor families is much lower and studies indicate that low levels of educational attainment are evident when a child is seven years old.

According to Adrienne Ingrum, there is a direct relationship between low socio-economic status and educational attainment among high school students (73). Children of parents with inferior educational attainment are likely to drop out of school.

This is because parent with low levels of education do not appreciate the value of education and tend to relay this perception to their children, hence boosting their likelihood of abandoning high school education (Ingrum 73). Thus, according to Ingrum, a low social-economic status (SES) may increase the prospect of a child dropping out of high School.

Coleman and DeLeire conducted a study in 2003 to ascertain the relationship between locus of control and educational attainment of youth. They established that children who had external locus of control do not value high school education and are thus likely to drop out of school more regularly than those with an internal locus of control (Coleman and DeLeire 712).

The outcome of their study support the Human Capital Theory which states that the probability of a student with an external locus of control dropping out of school is higher since they underrate their income potential and thus resolve that the value of lost wages outweighs the benefits acquired by investing in a high school education (Ingrum 74). According to Coleman and DeLeire, students from poor backgrounds are more likely to experience an external locus of control which makes them to place a low value on educational attainment (716).

Evidently, the Human Capital Theory stresses on the value of investing in human capital, for example education, for economic gains. Thus economic gains could be defined as completion of high school education, attained via investment in human capital.

Give that high school education takes place during youth, most of the human capital investments that would result in educational attainment need to be relayed from parents to young people. Thus, the socio-economic status of a family greatly affects accumulation of human capital among high school students.

Poor families not only have fewer human capital resources but also transmit less of it to their children (Ingrum 75). This implies that the effect of poverty among families with low SES is that it reduces the prospects of attaining high school education among these students.

Economic theories postulate that migration patterns are a result of rational choice. For instance, in the Harris-Torado model, migration of labour is structured within the framework of inequality of wages among different sectors. Labour migration choices are made by rational individuals who look for work that promise higher wage rate in urban areas.

Migration takes place when the financial gains with respect to wages at urban centres outweigh financial costs of migration and opportunity cost of rural work. Migration is thus seen as a selective process where skilled and better educated individuals move to urban centres in search of better jobs.

Since many poor families have limited financial resources, the cost of migration can limit the number of accessible destination choices, and thus the expected gains which might dampen migration. In developing countries, the adverse effects of poverty are compounded by asymmetrical information in financial markets (Waddington & Sabates-Wheeler 5).

There are several economic theories that attempt to explain the unrelenting poverty in the society. For instance, the critical threshold theory postulates that an optimal level in human capital must be realized so that the conventional competitive theory can be applicable in an economic system.

Both the country and individual must also attain this critical threshold, which varies according to the environment in which the person lives. For instance, if wage rate for unskilled labour are constrained by abundance of illiterate workers, a poor individual can’t save enough money to escape poverty if continues to live in a developing county that has a limited number of skilled labour force.

However, he can break out poverty if he shifts to a country that has a large skilled population (Bowles et al. 2). The Dysfunctional institutions theory suggests that poverty is caused by socio-economic institutions that result in skewed distribution of power and wealth in the society. Thus a society that fails to develop effective political and social institutions is likely to experience low incomes and low investments which are common ingredients of poverty (Bowles et al. 4).

A study of migration at the meso-level emphasizes migration to be a result of poverty in the community. Given that individuals are worried about their economic status, families that are poor in relation to their society move elsewhere to boost their economic status.

For instance, holding other factors constant, migration patterns to the United States from two Mexican villages (are trivially ascertained by the family’s initial absolute poverty but completely influenced by initial relative poverty).

Evidence also abounds of a non-linear association between poverty and migration which shows that poor families are not able to meet migration expenses. The outcomes suggest major concave associations between absolute and relative poverty and migration with respect to international migration (Waddington & Sabates-Wheeler 10).

Bowles, Samuel, Steven N. Durlauf, Karla Ruth Hoff, and Russell Sage Foundation. Poverty Traps . New York: Russell Sage Foundation. 2006. Print.

Coleman, Margo, and DeLeire Thomas. “An Economic Model of Locus of Control and the Human Capital Investment Decision.” The Journal of Human Resources 38.3 (2000): 710-721. Web.

Ingrum, Adrienne. “High School Dropout Determinants: The Effect of Poverty and Learning Disabilities.” The Park Place Economist 14 (2007): 73-79. Web.

John, Nitin Ashok, and Ahmed Tigani. “Health, Poverty and Human Development: A Review and Further Analysis of Effects of Poverty on Health.” Sudanese Journal of Public Health 2.4 (2007): 207-211. Web.

Maritz, Gert S., and Richard Harding. “ Life-long Programming Implications of Exposure to Tobacco Smoking and Nicotine Before and Soon After Birth: Evidence for Altered Lung Development .” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 8 (2011): 875-898. Web.

Sachs, Jeffrey. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time . New York: Penguin Press. 2005. Print.

Waddington, Hugh, and Rachel Sabates-Wheeler. “Migration, How Does Poverty Affect Migration Choice?” Sussex: Institution of Development Studies, 2003. Web.

Wojcicki, Janet M. “ Chronic Maternal Depression Is Associated with Reduced Weight Gain in Latino Infants from Birth to 2 Years of Age .” PLoS ONE 6 (2): e16737. Web.

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Essay about Poverty Causes and Effects: Writing Guide and Topics

Poverty is a dreaded term, and the thought of its visitation elicits nasty reactions. As a high school, college, or university student, you must be well-versed in how to write an essay about poverty causes and effects. As it is a cause-and-effect essay , at least mostly, you must come up with supporting ideas for the causes and effects of poverty.

Sometimes, it can be descriptive causes of poverty essays. So when asked to write a short essay on poverty, you should first understand your writing type.

Writing a good poverty essay needs time and dedication. Getting a topic is never guaranteed as most people have always chosen the best. However, you can get a topic for your poverty essay with creativity and critical thinking.

In this article, apart from offering free topics for poverty essays, we advise you on how to write such essays. When you need help, too, our custom essay writing service is ready to help.

How to Begin a Poverty Essa (An Eye-Catching Introduction)

We can never tire reiterating that any essay begins with a sound, clear, and concise introduction. In your introduction, here are some questions to ask yourself:

• What is poverty?
• What are the causes of poverty?
• What are the causes and effects of poverty?
• What are the different eradication strategies for poverty?
• How many people are affected by poverty globally?

The above questions can also be part of the topic ideas for your poverty essay.

The introduction should also have an elaborate poverty essay thesis. The poverty thesis should highlight the gist of the entire essay in either one or two sentences. It helps the reader identify the plan and intention of the essayist when writing a poverty essay.

Your introduction should also have some statistics to show the gravity of the issue globally. And when using quoted statistics, ensure they are recent, from a scholarly source, and well-referenced.

If you write an argumentative or persuasive essay on poverty, follow the right introduction to the poverty essay format.

How to Format/Outline a Poverty Essay

When writing a cause-and-effect essay on poverty, a persuasive poverty essay, or an essay on the causes of poverty, an outline precedes the other sections.

Your global poverty essay should begin with a great topic. After the topic, outline the introduction.

The body paragraphs come immediately after the introduction. Depending on the length of the poverty essay, it can follow the five-paragraph format. The body paragraphs should contain one idea. For instance, if you are writing a short essay on poverty in the world, your ideas can be poor governance, lack of education, and climate change. Those points should be in their paragraphs.

If it is How to end poverty essay, some potential considerations would be policy changes, education, fair sharing of resources, and environmental conservation.  The same applies when writing a short essay on helping the poor.

30 Suitable Topics for Essays on Poverty

Here is a list of some suitable poverty essay topics. They can help you brainstorm for the best topics or better yet you can choose and use them in your essays, research papers, theses, and dissertations.

• Child poverty and its impact on growth and development
• Is poverty inevitable?
• Is there a nexus between poverty and world hunger?
• Explore the causes and consequences of poverty in India.
• What are the most successful nations in eradicating poverty?
• Which countries have the highest poverty index?
• The impacts of poverty in our society.
• Poverty definition essay.
• Real-life examples of poverty.
• Poverty as a multifaceted issue.
• Exploring the American stagnant poverty line
• The connection between poverty and homelessness
• How poverty affects aboriginal communities
• Poverty in contemporary society.
• Poverty and crime rates.
• Prejudice and poverty.
• How poverty affects the progress of students
• Does terrorism cause poverty?
• Wars and poverty: A case study of Congo, Somali, and Iraq.
• Human Conflict and Poverty.
• How the United Nations and the Red Cross are fighting Poverty.
• State and Non-state actors in poverty eradication.
• Family planning and poverty.
• Poverty and access to quality healthcare.
• The link between culture and poverty.
• Does poverty in a nation depict poor governance?
• How poverty acts as a factor in human trafficking and prostitution.
• How is poverty measured?
• Capitalism and poverty?
• The Role of the Great Depression on Poverty.

Related Reading: Informative speech topics and ideas.

Concluding an Essay on Poverty (Leave the Audience Yearning for More)

Now, even after writing an excellent poverty essay, it must end. You don't bring it to an end anyhow. Instead, you will have a closing sentence that signals the reader that the essay, albeit great, is ending.

The best thing to do here is to highlight the essay's main points. Choose the best words to use when summarizing ideas. Again, you will need to restate the thesis in a reinvented format this time.

Make the conclusion memorable, like the introduction to your essay about poverty. You will score the best grades when you balance the introduction, body, and conclusion.

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Useful Resources:

• Facts on Poverty
• Poverty World Clock (Real-time poverty index calculator)
• Defining Poverty
• Eradicating poverty

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Poverty: Causes and Solutions to Problem

Introduction, the causes of poverty, inclusive economic growth as an answer to poverty, employment opportunities and entrepreneurship.

Poverty is a global economic and social problem that has persisted throughout the centuries. Attempts to establish the causes of poverty and the solutions to the issue have been made since the emergence of early civilizations. Despite the significant drop in the numbers of the extremely poor in the past few decades, particularly in developing countries, poverty remains one of the most serious challenges to governments worldwide. Economic growth can help alleviate many issues that cause poverty. Creating new jobs and improving universal access to education and medical care can considerably enhance the quality of life for low-income households. However, the research proves that economic development benefits the deprived groups only when governments implement targeted socio-economic policies and keep track of their efficiency.

There are multiple theories that try to establish the causes of poverty. Some of those explain it using solely economic models; others consider social factors as well. The first kind focuses on how low per capita income creates intergenerational poverty caused by inadequate access to education and health care (Sabah et al., 2017). However, these theories are somewhat limited, as, for example, in countries lacking quality education and health care, higher income does not necessarily guarantee a better life. Other theories point out the significance of social (ethnic, gender, religious) disparities as a limiting factor, especially in developing countries (Sabah et al., 2017). Several studies have established the relation between poverty and the size of the household. Islam et al. (2016) note that households with more than five members, a young head of the family, and female-headed households are the most vulnerable. Overall, most scholars agree that poverty is defined by limited access to vital resources. It is a complex phenomenon caused by a multitude of economic, political, and social factors, which requires a holistic approach in its analysis.

Numerous scholars have questioned the impact of economic growth on poverty levels over the last few decades. However, multiple studies prove that the economic boom at the end of the 20th century helped resolve long-standing poverty issues in developing countries. Khan et al. (2019) state that “economic growth at macro-level consequent better health services and improved quality of education, whereas at micro-level it consequent increased individual’s income and provided employment opportunities, thereby reducing poverty” (p. 769). Fosu (2017) attributes the significant change in poverty levels in Latin American and Asian countries in the last quarter of the 20th century to high GDP growth. However, GDP growth is not necessarily indicative of lower poverty rates. Fosu (2017) notes that “income is generally a better reflector of poverty than GDP is” (p. 313). According to Škare and Družeta (2016), economic growth in China and India resulted in a significant increase in per capita income, despite soaring income inequalities. While the perception of the relation between economic development and lower poverty levels has evolved significantly throughout the last decades, most researchers agree that growth is essential to fighting poverty.

Nevertheless, income inequality is a major factor that can reduce the positive impact of a healthy economy. Fosu (2017) states that income disparities in Botswana have persisted despite rapid GDP growth, while lesser progress in the Ghanaian economy had a more significant impact on poverty levels. Corruption is another factor that can hinder the positive effect of growth. Niyimbanira (2017) notes that in many African countries, economic development primarily benefited the elites and did not change much for low-income households. Škare and Družeta (2016) conclude that the original “trickle-down” theory of the post-war period, which implies that a healthy economy guarantees lower poverty levels, needs serious reconsideration. The latest research shows that while economic growth is essential in order to alleviate poverty, its impact can vary significantly depending on other social and political factors. Therefore, it should be used to implement social policies and make investments in jobs, education, and health sectors that target the most deprived and vulnerable groups.

Economic development contributes to the creation of new jobs, which can significantly reduce poverty levels. Nguyen (2016) states that “there is a positive relationship between high unemployment and widespread poverty” (p. 115). Therefore, the reduction of unemployment rates should be one of the governments’ main priorities in developing countries. Nguyen (2016) observers that the Caribbean states with a high focus on human capital have been far more successful in handling the poverty issue than other countries in the region. Niyimbanira (2017) underpins the significance of creating job opportunities that can provide a decent stable income for unemployed youth. Along with job creation, increasing the minimum wage is crucial to reduce poverty in developing countries (Niyimbanira, 2017). The poor are often inclined to accept any job offers, even those that do not provide sufficient income (Ramadhani & Putra, 2019). However, it is important to notice that in countries where a significant fraction of the labor force is employed unofficially, raising the minimum wage will not change much (Ramadhani & Putra, 2019). Overall, sustainable job creation is arguably the most important tool in eliminating poverty.

In developed countries, policymakers often emphasize the crucial role of entrepreneurship in fighting poverty. Lee and Rodriguez-Pose (2020) note that “rapid growth forces firms to be more inclusive when hiring” (para. 9). However, as previously noted, lower unemployment does not guarantee a reduction in poverty levels, and the impact of entrepreneurship on the poor has to be studied in more detail. Lee and Rodriguez-Pose (2020) state that only entrepreneurship in tradable sectors contributes to reducing poverty. Thus, governments should prioritize investment in manufacturing, financial services, and research and development as entrepreneurship in these sectors might be of the greatest benefit to low-income families.

Education is another key factor that impacts average income growth. Ramadhani and Putra (2019) state that insufficient education limits one’s job opportunities and reduces potential income. Economic development can be used to improve access to high-quality education for the poor and increase their employment opportunities. Niyimbanira (2017) argues that low skills and the absence of decent education are the driving forces of unemployment and poverty in developing countries. For example, in South Sudan, over 80 percent of the earners in low-income households have no formal education (Shimeles & Verdier-Chouchane, 2016). However, despite the importance of universal primary education, poor families in African countries are often reluctant to send their children to school. According to Shimeles and Verdier-Chouchane (2016), “low returns to primary education reduce incentives for households to send children to school, thereby limiting the poverty mitigating scope of primary education” (p. 168). Targeted income subsidies for primary education could solve this problem (Shimeles & Verdier-Chouchane, 2016). However, to implement these initiatives, stable economic growth is required.

Higher education plays an equally important role in alleviating poverty. In the 2000s, Surin and Si-Saket provinces in northeastern Thailand have shown significant GDP per capita growth; however, only Surin managed to significantly reduce poverty levels (Moore & Donaldson, 2016). The success of the policies implemented in Surin was largely a result of well-educated local youth engagement in NGOs that offered support to local farmers and prevented the implementation of harmful initiatives (Moore & Donaldson, 2016). This case shows how economic growth can contribute to reducing poverty through better education, and how quality education, in turn, can lead to economic growth.

Ensuring universal access to medical care is a measure that can significantly improve the quality of life for the most marginalized groups. The inefficiency of the healthcare industry remains one of the most pressing issues in African countries. Health issues decrease individuals’ chances of getting well- paid jobs and contribute to poverty. Bawah et al. (2019) cite the Community Health and Family Planning Project (CHPS) as an example of a successful policy that addresses poverty issues in Ghana. The study confirms that qualified professionals in rural communities helped lower child mortality rates and decrease health issues among the populace (Bawah et al., 2019). Providing access to quality medical care, in this case, helped reduce the gap between the rich and the poor through decreasing the economic pressure on low-income households.

While poverty is a phenomenon usually associated with developing countries, it remains a pressing issue even in the US. In the developed countries, high costs of medical care can contribute towards higher poverty levels, especially among the minorities (Remler et al., 2017). Implementation of social policies in healthcare in the US is an example of the inclusive economic growth approach that can lead to poverty alleviation. Remler et al. (2017) state that “Medicaid reduced poverty among its recipients by a remarkable 17.1 percentage points” (p. 1834). Overall, the benefits of public health insurance programs have a significant correlation to poverty reduction (Remler et al., 2017). Therefore, in the developed countries, policymakers should seek to implement public programs and premium benefits, as they have proven to be efficient in the fight against poverty.

Poverty alleviation is a complex issue that requires a systematic approach. As the causes of poverty can vary significantly across the globe, empirical research is necessary to find efficient policies in every specific case. While economic growth arguably had a significant impact on poverty levels in less developed regions at the end of the 20th century, the research has proven that an increase in GDP has not benefited the poor in many countries. Numerous examples of inefficient use of political and financial assets in Africa, Latin America, and Asia show that economic development leads to a reduction in poverty only when the governments implement targeted pro-poor policies. Employment and education opportunities, as well as accessible health care for low-income households, should be prioritized. Numerous studies confirm that targeting these areas leads to a significant reduction in poverty levels in the long term, and it helps to close the gap between the poorest and the rich. The most recent research established that inequality has a strong impact on poverty levels. Therefore, it is vital to ensure that low-income households actually benefit from economic growth, and it does not lead to larger income discrepancies instead.

Bawah, A. A., Philips, J. F., Asuming, P. O., Jackson, E. F., Walega, P., Kanmiki, E. W., Sheff, M. C., & Oduro, A. (2019). Does the provision of community health services offset the effects of poverty and low maternal educational attainment on childhood mortality? An analysis of the equity effect of the Navrongo experiment in Northern Ghana . SSM – Population Health, 7.

Fosu, A. K. (2017). Growth, inequality, and poverty reduction in developing countries: Recent global evidence . Research in Economics, 71 (2), 306-336.

Islam, D., Sayeed, J., & Hossain, N. (2016). On determinants of poverty and inequality in Bangladesh . Journal of Poverty, 21 (4), 1-20.

Khan, H. U. R., Nassani, A. A., Aldakil, A. M., Abro, M. M. Q., Islam, T., & Zaman, K. (2019). Pro-poor growth and sustainable development framework: Evidence from two step GMM estimator . Journal of Cleaner Production, 206, 767-784.

Lee, N., & Rodriguez-Pose, A. (2020). Entrepreneurship and the fight against poverty in US cities . Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, preprint.

Moore, J. D., & Donaldson, J. A. (2016). Human-scale economics: Economic growth and poverty reduction in northeastern Thailand. World Development, 85, 1-15. 

Nguyen, H. Q. (2016). Relationship between economic growth, unemployment and poverty: Analysis at provincial level in Vietnam . International Journal of Economics and Finance, 8 (12), 113-119.

Niyimbanira, F. (2017). Analysis of the impact of economic growth on income inequality and poverty in South Africa: The case of Mpumalanga province. International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, 7 (4), 254-261.

Remler, D. K., Korenman, S. D., & Hyson, R. T. (2017). Estimating the effects of health insurance and other social programs on poverty under the Affordable Care Act . Health Affairs, 36 (10), 1828-1837.

Ramadani, F., & Putra, F. S. (2019). Having a job is Not enough to escape poverty: Case of Indonesian working poors. IPTEK Journal of Proceedings Series, 6, 58-64.

Sabah, A, Rusdi, O., & Mohd Udin, M. (2017). Theories of poverty to the integrative theory. A comparative analysis: Accordance to the situation of Iraq . IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 22 (5), 47-50.

Shimeles, A. & Verdier-Chouchane, A. (2016). The key role of education in reducing poverty in South Sudan . African Development Review, 28 (2), 162-176.

Škare, M., & Družeta R. P. (2016). Poverty and economic growth: A review . Technological and Economic Development of Economy, 22 (1), 156-175.

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Extreme poverty in the time of COVID-19

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Homi kharas and homi kharas senior fellow - global economy and development , center for sustainable development meagan dooley meagan dooley former senior research analyst - global economy and development , center for sustainable development.

June 2, 2021

Introduction

The short-term economic and well-being costs of COVID-19 have been severe. Though we hope the pandemic will be a temporary shock, in the interim it has pushed many vulnerable households living at the margins back into poverty. Due to lockdowns and social distancing measures, people have lost jobs and livelihoods, leaving them unable to pay for housing and food. Schools have been closed and some children may not return, shutting off one of the main pathways out of poverty for low-income children. Women and girls have been especially impacted by these school closures. Mothers at all socio-economic levels have dropped out of the labor force to supervise online learning and care for children and older relatives, and many will not reenter. Even before the pandemic, women and girls of reproductive age were overrepresented among the poor, making these setbacks all the more concerning. 1

We likely will not know the full impacts of COVID-19 on poverty for a few years, as most poverty data comes from household surveys, which have been difficult to carry out during the last year. However, we do know that economic growth is the largest driver of poverty reduction. Conversely, economic recessions drive a rise in poverty, other things being equal. In 2020, however, other things were not equal; national and local governments were able to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on their poorest people to varying degrees and assessing the economy-wide impact of these measures cannot yet be done systematically. What can be done at this juncture is to use new estimates for economic growth through 2030 to capture the potential impact of COVID-19 on poverty in the long run.

For example, some countries, like India, saw a substantial fall in economic activity in 2020, but are expected to see a strong economic recovery in 2021, despite the recent fresh wave of infections. India, in our view, will soon return to its pre-COVID-19 poverty trends. Other countries, like Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, will likely be slow to recover, and could experience low growth for the next decade. As a result, they may see higher poverty headcounts in 2030 than in 2019.

While these facts are sobering, this long-term poverty stagnation is not inevitable. Countries have responded to the pandemic with a number of social protection measures to try and protect the most vulnerable. There has been a proliferation of mobile cash transfer programs, taking advantage of big data and machine learning to better target those in need. The needs are great, but not insurmountable; the amount needed to lift people out of extreme poverty is less than the current annual official development assistance (ODA) budget. Eliminating extreme poverty will increasingly depend on better targeting as well as greater resource mobilization. We believe that geographic targeting of specific people in specific places offers considerable potential.

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Poverty: Definition, Causes, Types and Effects

Introduction.

Poverty is a global issue. It is characterized by limitations in accessing human basic needs such as food, healthcare, education, shelter, and clean water among other essential needs.

This paper defines what poverty is. It explains in detail; relative and absolute poverty as the two main types of poverty in our societies. Besides, the paper explores the reasons causing poverty in society such as overpopulation, inadequate employment, and environmental degradation among other important causes. Thus, the paper points out the effects that are linked to poverty such as homelessness, hunger, and sexual exploitation. Further, the paper also expounds on significant poverty mitigation measures such as fixing strong institutions, education, skill-building, economic liberalization, and empowering women among other reasons that should be established to reduce poverty.

In conclusion, poverty creates hunger and hopelessness among populations.

Policies to empower the societies, economic structures such as elaborate healthcare, affordable education, and provision of safe food should be established and strengthened to help in reducing the intense poverty in the societies.

Poverty means a lack of minimum basic needs necessary to preserve life.i.e. food, clothing, healthcare, basic education, and shelter. The poor in this case are people who lack an opportunity to lead a comfortable or decent living standard because of a compromised financial position in society (Tanner 1996). Poor people have low income compared to the ‘nation’s median income’. A nation’s median income is the average income of an individual in a country.

Types of Poverty

Society is made up of different types of poverty based on the personal definition. There exist two types of poverty that are relative poverty and absolute poverty (Tanner 1996). The measure of relative poverty is comparable to measuring social inequality in society.

Relative poverty is earmarked as a measure centered on a poor standard of living and low income about the repose of the society. Relative poverty does not essentially infer to somatic human supplies such as health, shelter, and nutrition. But it favors incapability to access goods and services that are probable by present-day society (Cheal 1999).

Absolute poverty is a comparative term that defines a condition within a segment of the populace when equal to the mainstream. Constitutes of absolute poverty differ from one generation to the other as a state of slight survival changes. Absolute poverty affects people who do not have enough resources to aid their basic needs (Cheal 1999). The basic needs include accessing water, education, food, shelter, and health care. Failure to receive these essential basic needs results in high infant mortality and less life expectancy, low literacy rate and contributes to hardships in finding work. People affected by absolute poverty tend to suffer from chronic diseases and parasites that would have been easily been contained. That due to abject poverty, it proves hard to access affordable health care (Cheal 1999).

Causes of poverty

Various reasons have been charged to a wider spread of poverty across the world. one of the important causes of poverty is overpopulation. Overpopulation is a situation where a larger number of people exist than the resources and space available to support them (Lister 2004). High population growth creates high pressure on the available resources leading to scarcity. The surging population exerts pressure on available resources. An only a limited percentage of people can be supported on a given piece of land. Besides, the numbers rely on the quantity of food and other resources the land can give. In countries where the livelihood of the population is farming, herding, or gardening; a huge tract of land can only support a limited number of people because the latter activities are labor-intensive and only produce less amount of food (Lister 2004).

Besides, the level of poverty can depend hugely on combining population density and agricultural output. Consequently, a high birthrate also contributes to increasing poverty. Children are believed to assets to the poor population this is because they provide the needed labor, especially in farming activities. Besides, traditional values in most societies sanction the significance of having large families. In developing countries, for instance, the government does little in providing less or no financial support in strengthening family planning (Gladstone 1996). People who wish to limit their families face difficulties in achieving their objectives, therefore, most developing countries have a higher rate of population growth a situation contributing to poverty.

The second cause of poverty is associated with inadequate employment and education opportunities. Lack of sound education and rampant illiteracy in society increase the level of poverty in the society (Gladstone 1996). Most governments particularly in developing countries do not have the capacity and resources to provide good education to their population. Without a good education, most people are limited in finding good job prospects that can sustain their livelihood. Unprivileged people forego education to search for alternative means of improving their livelihood.

Further, lack of employment opportunities and especially for women can need foregoing to school, therefore, contributing to poverty. Consequently, when people do not have work, they have money. Hence mass unemployment creates a high level of poverty in society (Kelso 1994). Employment opportunities sometimes change providing a long period of joblessness. In densely populated countries, it is sure the working-age group cannot access employment and earn satisfactory income. Alternatively, other people may not be eligible to find work or may earn fewer wages to support themselves and their dependents (Kelso 1994).

The third, causes of poverty are environmental degradation. Environmental degradation has contributed to the depreciation of the natural environment for example; water bodies, atmosphere, forests, and soil causing poverty. Environmental challenges have contributed to the scarcity of food, shelter, water, and other vital resources. Degradation of land, water, and air pollution, and deforestation affect people who benefit directly from these resources (Ellwood 2010).

A higher percentage of the population in developed nations can easily access high-quality social amenities, high levels of technology, and food security. Developed nations use high levels of technology to mitigate environmental degradation, protecting their population from health hazards resulting from the environmental population. In addition, environmental degradation brings more challenges such as; intensive farming causes loss of soil fertility, pollution (Ellwood 2010). Deforestation reduces food and other worthwhile resources linked to it. Forests tend to absorb pollution and act as the catchment of water. Without forests, there is a risk of increased pollution and flooding that decreases productivity.

Fourthly, the economic and democratic trends extend the causes of poverty in society. Economic trend influences how the population adapts to its immediate environment. Inflation tends to increase the cost of living because people lose their jobs and hence have no stable source of income (Ellwood 2010).

Period of inflation causes recession and affect mostly the younger and less educated members of the society, who face difficulties in getting jobs that provide good earning to support themselves. Besides, changes in labor markets have surged the level of poverty (Chafel 1993). For example, the high-paying opportunities in manufacturing industries have decreased, whereas opportunities in the service and technology-linked businesses have surged. Based on job trends, people have gained skills that are needed in performing manual jobs such as; those available in manufacturing industries either through vocational or apprentice programs (Chafel 1993).

But these jobs are being faced out by technology and service-related jobs that need a college education, people who do not have a college education experience a challenge in getting good-paying work. Thus, the disparity in the spread of resources also accounts for a high level of poverty in society (Eisdell 1992). People placed at the middle or bottom of the income distribution have been affected because the cost of living is high. After all, the resource distribution in their geographical area cannot aid them. However, the demographic shift has worsened the situation of poverty. The demographic shift has upsurged the poverty rate among children. For instance, in the US, the family structure has been altered significantly. This has led to the rise of the single-parent family hood which is poorer (Eisdell 1992). Single families with children experience challenges in evading poverty compared with two-parent families. Two parents families can share the costs of childcare and work responsibilities.

Lastly, welfare dependency and individual responsibility have also been linked to the causes of poverty in society (Adams 1991). Differing myths persist about individual responsibility and poverty in society. Some people certify that poverty is an indication of societal makeup and that a proportion of any given society is predictable will poor. Dysfunctional “social institutions such as schools and labor markets” are also responsible for increasing poverty levels in societies. So the social reasons that poverty is uncontrollable by those who face it, but could be avoided if sound strategies and plans are instituted (Adams 1991).

Moreover, society believes the poor themselves intentionally carry themselves in choices that perpetuate their poverty. For example, if people have deliberate alternatives to use drugs and direct them to poverty, it can reason that they can blame themselves for their condition. But this reasoning cannot prove itself the association between poverty and drugs. In addition, cycles of poverty have been influenced by welfare programs. Government initiative to create welfare organizations to help the poor strengthen sustaining poverty in the society (Luthar 1999).

A welfare program gives incentives to people by encouraging them to remain poor while receiving payments and other important support. Welfare organization, therefore, discourages marriage and work (Luthar 1999). For example, cash welfare programs in the US inspire individual decisions hence creating poverty.

Effects of Poverty

Poverty gives rise to undesirable effects in society. One of the effects associated with poverty is homelessness. Individuals without enough incomes and social maintenance to satisfy their basic needs may be a locked-in systems where they don’t have a fixed place to call home (Evans 2000). There are also concerns of an increasing “gap between the rich and the poor especially in developed economies.” Because the latter earns less in many societies, they are compelled to make impossible options between; medical care, food, transport, and clothing. Because of their choices, many working families regularly find themselves turning to the streets for shelter. Consequently, social upkeep for the poor has decreased in the society, also in countries where social reforms were being embraced, it has contributed to an increase in the population at the possibility of homelessness (Evans 2000).

Secondly, poverty results in hunger. Hunger is designated as a lack of accessibility to adequate food because of poverty or controlled resources. This always leads to food insecure which refers to the inability to access basic needs because of financial limits. Hunger persists in society because individuals have no access to food or are constrained to buy existing food (Geyndt 1996). Besides, other notable reasons associated with hunger include ignorance, war, diseases, and unbalanced trade configurations.

Thirdly, poverty leads to health decline. Significance reasons ascribed to poverty for example malnutrition makes the population susceptible to illnesses. In poor countries, good and reliable health care is a preserve of the rich (Geyndt 1996). The poor population, therefore, lacks accessibility to suitable treatment and care. Because of this phenomenon, in poorer nations, life prospect is considerably lower than in developed nations. HIV/AIDs and TB are regarded as diseases linked to poverty. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS is directly associated with a higher death rate. The higher this death rate could be lessened if suitable strategies on how to access treatment for unscrupulous infections in cases of TB and antiretroviral drugs (Geyndt 1996). Besides, if pregnant women have suitable prenatal and postnatal attention, the dangers associated with HIV transmission to their child are decreased.

Where Population experiences extreme poverty for example in high HIV prevalence areas, societal and family networks weaken and break (Harrison 2007). This makes collective actions challenging because people feel that they do have control of their lives because of isolation, marginalization, and lack of strength in taking part in decision-making and policies which influence their lives.

Lastly, poverty contributes to sexual exploitation among children. Sex exploitation involves sexual abuse by an adult and reward by either cash or in-kind to the minor, or a third-party (Harrison 2007). The Child is preserved as a commercial object. Commercial sexual exploitation among children contributes to a form of oppression and ferocity against children; it is also quantified as forced labor and present-day slavery. Because of poverty, children are sexually exploited in three different ways; being forced into prostitution, pornography, trafficking for sexual reasons, and other forms such as sex tourism and early marriages (Harrison 2007).

Mitigating Poverty in Societies

Poverty can be contained when appropriate strategies are adopted. one of the ways to mitigate poverty in society is having strong institutions. An efficient institution that obeys laws and is not corrupt makes and implements good laws that offer confidence to businesses and property is essential in mitigating poverty (Katz 1976). A government that is fair and efficient will strive to work hard to create a long-term investment of the country rather than despoliation of available resources by corruption.

Secondly, the role of education and skill-building for economic growth is a significant approach in poverty alleviation (Katz 1976). Collective public education plays a central role in molding the youth with elementary academic and trade skills. Learning by apprenticeship also provides the needed trade skills. Besides, education geared towards women’s improvements will allow small family size; which is important in poverty decline. Consequently, education about skills needed to develop and uphold the infrastructures of a poor society such as plumbing, trade, electrician, and other mechanical skills are desired to help the society stray away from poverty (Katz 1976).

Thirdly, poverty can be reduced by empowering society to embrace Microloan programs and education. A microloan program is believed to be one of the practical tools geared towards poverty fall in society. A microloan is an idea whereby individuals such as farmers or groups of people are given loaned small sums of money to enable them to get things needed to surge their economic progress. Besides, by incorporating micro-enterprise development; a technique encompasses education to the population on how to handle basic financial ethics and broad business training before loan provision provides a practical approach to mitigating poverty in the society (Katz 1976).

Fourthly, strategic economic liberalization helps in lessening the effects of the poverty scourge in society. Prolonging property privileges to safeguard the poor contribute to poverty mitigation that a country could embrace. Safeguarding property privileges to land, which is an essential asset for most societies, is fundamental to their economic growth and freedom. Ferrante (2008) points out that increasing lands privileges is vital in decreasing poverty.

Fifthly, embracing aids provide an opportunity for mitigating poverty in society. Aid is labeled as a basic income award. It is a form of social security that occasionally offers citizens money. Aid can be spread based on various ways and meeting certain needs. For example, conditional cash transfers are widely attributed as a successful anti-poverty initiative.it is grounded on actions, for example, registering children in schools or receiving vaccinations (Ferrante 2008). Consequently, welfare states provide an alternative to poverty decrease.

States that provide economic opportunities, security, independence in a complete manner ensure that poverty is minimized therefore creating an equal society. Besides, debt relief contributes to burdening of poor countries hence assisting in mitigating poverty (Ferrante 2008). Most developing countries have experienced huge debts from governments of rich nations and major international money lending institutions. Noting the interest rate is much higher than a country can produce per year in profits, freezing these debts allows the poor nation to reduce the level of poverty, by listing policies that will reduce poverty such as the provision of basic health care and affordable education.

Lastly, women offer an important role in strengthening household survival. Strengthening the participation of women in the development of the economy as well as the youths have particularly been seen as an important approach to achieve high levels of economic growth. This will highlight the dynamics of poverty separately from income inequalities. With better privileges, opportunities, and environment, women tend to receive more education hence increasing the human capital of a country. When the favorable condition is established, women act responsibly in aiding the people in the family (Ferrante 2008). Besides, when women have better education, they control their lives and successfully bring down population growth because they influence family planning.

Poverty contributes to the weakening of society.it leads to homelessness, hunger, illnesses, and sexual exploitation among other undesirable effects in society. A society that experiences a high level of poverty cannot contribute to the society or a country’s economic growth. Hence fitting strategies such as efficient healthcare, quality, and affordable education, strong governmental institutions and affordable quality food framework is essential in reducing poverty and enhancing an economically stable society. This will increase life expectancy and improved lifestyle for the population.

Reference List

Adams, Richard H.1991. The Effects of International Remittances on Poverty, Inequality, and Development in Rural Egypt . Washington D.C: Intl Food Policy Res Inst.

Chafel, Judith A. 1993. Child Poverty and Public Policy . Washington DC: The Urban Insitute.

Cheal, David. 1999. New Poverty: Families in Postmodern Society . Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Eisdell, Joseph S. 1992. An Essay on the Causes and Remedies of Poverty . Boston: A. Hall, Virtue, and Co.

Ellwood, Charles A. 2010. Sociology and Modern Social Problems New Jersey: Evans, Alison. 2000. Poverty Reduction In The 1990s : An Evaluation of Strategy And Performance.Washington D.C: World Bank Publications.

Ferrante, Joan. 2008. Sociology: a Global Perspective. New York: Cengage Learning.

Geyndt, Willy D. 1996. Social Development and Absolute Poverty in Asia and Latin America . Washington D.C: World Bank Publications.

Gladstone, David.1996. Poverty and Social Welfare, Volume 2; Volume 6 . New York: Routledge.

Kelso, William A. 1994. Poverty and the Underclass: Changing Perceptions of the Poor in America . New York: NYU Press.

Harrison, Ann E. 2007. Globalization and Poverty . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Katz, Fred E. 1976. Structuralism in Sociology: An Approach to Knowledge . New York: Lister, Ruth. 2004. Poverty . Cambridge: Polity.

Luthar, Suniya S. 1999. Poverty and Children’s Adjustment. Califonia: Sage. Read Books.SUNY Press.

Tanner, Michael. 1996. The End of Welfare: Fighting Poverty in the Civil Society . Washington:Cato Institute.

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Essay on Poverty: Causes, Effects, and Solutions

Poverty is an international problem that affects many people. It means not having enough money for basic things like food, housing, and healthcare. Poverty also has serious consequences for individuals and communities. In this essay on poverty, we will examine the causes, effects, and possible solutions to poverty. Understanding poverty better will enable us to create a more equal society where everyone can live happily.

Table of Contents

• 1 Introduction to Poverty Essay
• 2.1 Economic Inequality
• 2.2 Political Instability
• 2.3 Discrimination
• 2.4 Lack of Education or Training
• 2.5 Health Issues or Disabilities
• 2.6 Limited Access to Affordable Housing
• 2.7 Globalization And Trade Policies
• 2.8 Environmental Factors
• 2.9 Income Inequality
• 3.1 Short-term Effects of Poverty
• 3.2 Long-term Effects of Poverty
• 4.1 Training and Education
• 4.2 Microfinance
• 4.3 Healthcare
• 4.4 Basic Income
• 4.5 Affordable Housing
• 4.6 Food Assistance
• 4.7 Progressive Taxation
• 4.8 Community Development
• 5 Conclusion of Poverty Essay

Introduction to Poverty Essay

A person who is in poverty is one who lacks basic necessities like food, shelter, and clothing. It’s a complex, broad issue that affects millions of people worldwide. But poverty isn’t just a lack of material resources; it’s also a range of social, economic, and political factors that limit an individual’s freedom.

A person in poverty may experience poor health outcomes, limited access to education, higher crime rates, and social exclusion. Poverty impacts society as a whole as well, including lower economic productivity, higher healthcare costs, and increased social inequality.

In many cases, poverty is tied to other forms of inequality, like racism, sexism, and disability discrimination. These overlapping factors make it difficult for individuals and communities to break out of poverty. Even though poverty has been combated for decades, it remains a big problem everywhere. In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it worse, pushing millions of people into poverty.

In order to solve poverty, it’s important to understand its root causes and effects of poverty and develop effective strategies.

Also Read: Essay On Motivation In Life.

Causes of Poverty: Examining Systemic and Individual Factors Contributing to Poverty

Economic Inequality

The presence of large amounts of wealth in the hands of a few individuals or groups can limit the access of those who are not as fortunate to have access to resources and opportunities. For example, families with low incomes may not be able to afford the same quality of education as wealthy ones, thus limiting their future opportunities.

Political Instability

A country with an unstable political climate may have limited access to basic services such as healthcare and education, leading to higher poverty rates. According to the World Bank, 8% of the global population, or 648 million people , live in extreme poverty.

Discrimination

Access to resources and opportunities can be limited by societal barriers like race, gender, sexuality, or ability. These kinds of barriers can be seen in education, employment, housing, and healthcare. They create an unequal playing field, where some have access to resources, while others are unfairly excluded. Due to this, disadvantaged people are unable to break out of poverty.

Lack of Education or Training

It is a major cause of poverty. When people don’t have access to appropriate education or vocational training, they often can’t get well-paying jobs or find employment at all. Without education, it’s hard for individuals to escape poverty because they lack the skills and knowledge needed to secure better opportunities.

Health Issues or Disabilities

Individuals with health issues or disabilities may be unable to work or earn a stable income due to health issues or disabilities. Healthcare costs can quickly increase, putting individuals under financial burden. Also, individuals who suffer from health challenges may have difficulty finding and maintaining employment due to limited physical or cognitive abilities. Lack of access to healthcare and preventative services worsens the problem. Health issues and disabilities impact economic stability and basic needs, creating a continuous cycle of poverty.

Limited Access to Affordable Housing

When people cannot find affordable housing, they must spend a large portion of their income on housing, leaving them with only a minimal amount of money to spend on other basic necessities. This problem is caused by factors such as high prices, limited availability, and discriminatory practices, which lead to overcrowded and unhealthy living conditions, evictions, and homelessness.

Globalization And Trade Policies

Globalization and trade policies can lead to poverty for several reasons. When countries engage in globalization and trade, local industries can suffer because they are unable to compete with foreign companies. It can result in job losses and the loss of economic diversity within the country.

Also, trade policies that do not properly regulate cheap goods can negatively impact developing countries. If powerful nations favor these goods, it can lead to overdependence on imports, further diminishing local industries and job opportunities. Also, trade agreements may prioritize the export of raw materials rather than encouraging the development of industries that add more value to these resources.

Developing countries also face challenges related to technology, medicine, and labor standards. Limited access to advanced technologies and essential medicines can interfere with their development. Also, outsourcing production to countries with lower labor standards can lead to low compensations and poor working conditions for workers in developing countries.

In short, trade policies that prioritize profit over people can lead to job loss and lower wages, contributing to poverty in both developed and developing countries.

Environmental Factors

Environmental factors also cause poverty. There are also natural disasters like droughts and floods that destroy livelihoods and limit access to resources like fertile land and water. Rising temperatures and unpredictable weather patterns have also been linked to climate change, which affects both agriculture and low-income communities. Deforestation and pollution further damage people’s health by reducing access to resources. Polluted areas or toxic waste dumps further worsen the situation for underprivileged communities.

Income Inequality

Income inequality is one of the key causes of poverty. Poverty occurs when there is an imbalance in the distribution of income within a society, with some holding large amounts of wealth while the majority struggles with low incomes. There are several factors that can contribute to inequality, including unequal access to education, a lack of employment opportunities, as well as unfair economic policies. It contributes to a cycle of poverty by preventing people from getting decent salaries, accessing essential resources, and improving their overall living conditions, thus widening the wealth gap.

Also Read: Should Teenagers Have a Part Time Job Essay.

Effects of Poverty: Short Term and Long Term

Individuals in poverty lack the resources they need to meet their basic needs. Here in this poverty essay, we will analyze the short-term and long-term effects of poverty.

Short-term Effects of Poverty

• Malnutrition: Poverty leads to a lack of access to nutritious food, resulting in malnutrition, which can cause inadequate growth, weakened immune systems, and other health problems.
• Poor Health: People living in poverty often lack access to healthcare and basic hygiene, leading to an increased risk of diseases and poor health outcomes.
• Lower Educational Achievement: Children living in poverty often lack access to quality education, leading to lower levels of education, which can have negative effects on future employment opportunities and earning capacity.
• Increased Crime Rates : The higher the level of poverty is, the more likely it is that people will become dependent on committing crimes in order to meet the basic needs of their families.
• Psychological Distress: Poverty can also cause psychological distress, including feelings of shame, anxiety, and depression.

Long-term Effects of Poverty

• Reduced Earning Potential: Poverty often results in lower education levels and limited opportunities for individuals growing up in poverty. A poverty-stricken individual may not have the same level of education or opportunities as an individual who grows up in a wealthy neighborhood.
• Poor Health Outcomes: People suffering from poverty over the long term are more likely to suffer from poorer health outcomes, including a higher rate of chronic diseases and illnesses.
• Intergenerational Poverty: There is a possibility that poverty may be passed from one generation to the next, thus creating a cycle of poverty that can be difficult to break.
• Limited Social Mobility : In some cases, poverty limits social mobility and makes it challenging for individuals and families to make progress on the road to economic success and achieve greater economic stability as a result of poverty.
• Reduced Community Development: When a community is poor, it often faces barriers to development due to the lack of available resources and opportunities for growth.

Also Read: What Does It Mean to Be Human Essay.

Effective Strategies and Solutions to Poverty

There are various potential solutions and interventions to reduce poverty, ranging from short-term emergency relief to long-term structural changes. Here are some solutions to poverty:

Training and Education

Training and education are vital strategies for addressing poverty. Providing people with the skills and knowledge they need can increase their chances of finding a job and earning a living. Investing in educational opportunities, including vocational training and job-specific skills development, can empower individuals to break the poverty cycle.

Also, financial awareness and entrepreneurship education can give people the tools to manage their finances effectively and earn money. We can help individuals improve their lives and contribute to the economic development of their communities by investing in training and education.

Microfinance

Microfinance is an effective strategy and solution for poverty that offers small loans and financial services to people who don’t have access to traditional banks. It allows low-income people to earn income and improve their lives by starting or expanding their own small businesses.

A microfinance institution also provides borrowers with financial education and support, allowing them to develop good financial habits and manage their resources effectively. By providing microfinance to people, they will have the opportunity to break out of poverty and become self-sufficient, and this plays a vital role in uplifting their communities and giving them hope for the future.

Health care plays an important role in addressing poverty by providing effective strategies and solutions. Providing accessible and affordable healthcare services is essential to improving personal well-being and combating poverty.

As a society, we are responsible for making sure everyone has access to quality healthcare, including preventive care, diagnostics, treatments, and medications, so that our people can stay healthy, pursue education, and find employment.

Also, healthcare initiatives that focus on the promotion of health education and disease prevention can help individuals and communities make informed decisions about their health, thereby reducing poverty in the long run.

Basic Income

The basic income program is meant to provide individuals with a regular, unconditional source of income to cover all of their basic needs, regardless of whether or not they work. Along with reducing poverty, this can also provide a safety net for people with disabilities or other reasons who cannot work.

Affordable Housing

Providing affordable housing is a key way to fight poverty and ensure everyone has a place to live. This involves developing affordable housing options for low-income families. People and families can pay for other necessities like food and health care if housing is more cost-effective.

Also, this approach prevents housing insecurity and lowers housing costs, which gives people the opportunity to get quality education and a job. Housing for everyone can be achieved through a range of measures, including government subsidies, rent control, and partnerships with non-profits.

Food Assistance

Food assistance is critical for fighting poverty. It helps people and families who can’t afford nutritious food. It can come in the form of food banks, government programs, or community initiatives. The benefits of food assistance include reducing hunger, improving health outcomes, and enabling students to pursue education, jobs, and other opportunities. The goal of food assistance is to reduce poverty by addressing one of the most fundamental needs of individuals.

Progressive Taxation

Progressive taxation is an effective strategy and solution to poverty that involves taxing individuals and businesses based on their income or wealth. With a progressive tax system, people with higher incomes or more wealth pay more in taxes, while people with lower incomes pay less. Through this approach, appropriate wealth will be redistributed and income inequality will be reduced, giving the government more money to invest in programs that help people out of poverty.

Community Development

The goal of community development is to empower and improve the lives of individuals within a community thereby reducing poverty. The main objective is to identify and address the root causes of poverty, such as limited access to education, healthcare, and employment opportunities, by bringing together community members, organizations, and resources.

A key objective of community development is to uplift and break the cycle of poverty by actively involving the community in decision-making processes, increasing collaboration, and implementing sustainable initiatives. By using this approach, communities can become more self-sufficient, adaptable, and equipped with the tools and support they need in order to overcome poverty and improve their overall well-being.

Also Read: Can A Person Choose to Be Happy Essay.

Conclusion of Poverty Essay

Poverty is a pressing global issue with severe consequences for individuals and societies. Several factors contribute to this problem, including limited access to education, limited resources, unemployment, and unequal distribution of wealth. The effects of poverty can be seen in the form of inadequate healthcare, malnutrition, crime, and instability in society. As a way to combat this problem, we should create jobs and start businesses, improve access to essential necessities like water and healthcare, and create social safety nets. If we address the root causes and implement sustainable solutions, we can make our society more balanced and economically successful.

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NPR defends its journalism after senior editor says it has lost the public's trust

David Folkenflik

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust.

NPR's top news executive defended its journalism and its commitment to reflecting a diverse array of views on Tuesday after a senior NPR editor wrote a broad critique of how the network has covered some of the most important stories of the age.

"An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don't have an audience that reflects America," writes Uri Berliner.

A strategic emphasis on diversity and inclusion on the basis of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, promoted by NPR's former CEO, John Lansing, has fed "the absence of viewpoint diversity," Berliner writes.

NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, wrote in a memo to staff Tuesday afternoon that she and the news leadership team strongly reject Berliner's assessment.

"We're proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories," she wrote. "We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world."

NPR names tech executive Katherine Maher to lead in turbulent era

She added, "None of our work is above scrutiny or critique. We must have vigorous discussions in the newsroom about how we serve the public as a whole."

A spokesperson for NPR said Chapin, who also serves as the network's chief content officer, would have no further comment.

Praised by NPR's critics

Berliner is a senior editor on NPR's Business Desk. (Disclosure: I, too, am part of the Business Desk, and Berliner has edited many of my past stories. He did not see any version of this article or participate in its preparation before it was posted publicly.)

Berliner's essay , titled "I've Been at NPR for 25 years. Here's How We Lost America's Trust," was published by The Free Press, a website that has welcomed journalists who have concluded that mainstream news outlets have become reflexively liberal.

Berliner writes that as a Subaru-driving, Sarah Lawrence College graduate who "was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother ," he fits the mold of a loyal NPR fan.

Yet Berliner says NPR's news coverage has fallen short on some of the most controversial stories of recent years, from the question of whether former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 election, to the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19, to the significance and provenance of emails leaked from a laptop owned by Hunter Biden weeks before the 2020 election. In addition, he blasted NPR's coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

On each of these stories, Berliner asserts, NPR has suffered from groupthink due to too little diversity of viewpoints in the newsroom.

The essay ricocheted Tuesday around conservative media , with some labeling Berliner a whistleblower . Others picked it up on social media, including Elon Musk, who has lambasted NPR for leaving his social media site, X. (Musk emailed another NPR reporter a link to Berliner's article with a gibe that the reporter was a "quisling" — a World War II reference to someone who collaborates with the enemy.)

When asked for further comment late Tuesday, Berliner declined, saying the essay spoke for itself.

The arguments he raises — and counters — have percolated across U.S. newsrooms in recent years. The #MeToo sexual harassment scandals of 2016 and 2017 forced newsrooms to listen to and heed more junior colleagues. The social justice movement prompted by the killing of George Floyd in 2020 inspired a reckoning in many places. Newsroom leaders often appeared to stand on shaky ground.

Leaders at many newsrooms, including top editors at The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times , lost their jobs. Legendary Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron wrote in his memoir that he feared his bonds with the staff were "frayed beyond repair," especially over the degree of self-expression his journalists expected to exert on social media, before he decided to step down in early 2021.

Since then, Baron and others — including leaders of some of these newsrooms — have suggested that the pendulum has swung too far.

Author Interviews

Legendary editor marty baron describes his 'collision of power' with trump and bezos.

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger warned last year against journalists embracing a stance of what he calls "one-side-ism": "where journalists are demonstrating that they're on the side of the righteous."

"I really think that that can create blind spots and echo chambers," he said.

Internal arguments at The Times over the strength of its reporting on accusations that Hamas engaged in sexual assaults as part of a strategy for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel erupted publicly . The paper conducted an investigation to determine the source of a leak over a planned episode of the paper's podcast The Daily on the subject, which months later has not been released. The newsroom guild accused the paper of "targeted interrogation" of journalists of Middle Eastern descent.

Heated pushback in NPR's newsroom

Given Berliner's account of private conversations, several NPR journalists question whether they can now trust him with unguarded assessments about stories in real time. Others express frustration that he had not sought out comment in advance of publication. Berliner acknowledged to me that for this story, he did not seek NPR's approval to publish the piece, nor did he give the network advance notice.

Some of Berliner's NPR colleagues are responding heatedly. Fernando Alfonso, a senior supervising editor for digital news, wrote that he wholeheartedly rejected Berliner's critique of the coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, for which NPR's journalists, like their peers, periodically put themselves at risk.

Alfonso also took issue with Berliner's concern over the focus on diversity at NPR.

"As a person of color who has often worked in newsrooms with little to no people who look like me, the efforts NPR has made to diversify its workforce and its sources are unique and appropriate given the news industry's long-standing lack of diversity," Alfonso says. "These efforts should be celebrated and not denigrated as Uri has done."

After this story was first published, Berliner contested Alfonso's characterization, saying his criticism of NPR is about the lack of diversity of viewpoints, not its diversity itself.

"I never criticized NPR's priority of achieving a more diverse workforce in terms of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. I have not 'denigrated' NPR's newsroom diversity goals," Berliner said. "That's wrong."

Questions of diversity

Under former CEO John Lansing, NPR made increasing diversity, both of its staff and its audience, its "North Star" mission. Berliner says in the essay that NPR failed to consider broader diversity of viewpoint, noting, "In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans."

Berliner cited audience estimates that suggested a concurrent falloff in listening by Republicans. (The number of people listening to NPR broadcasts and terrestrial radio broadly has declined since the start of the pandemic.)

Former NPR vice president for news and ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin tweeted , "I know Uri. He's not wrong."

Others questioned Berliner's logic. "This probably gets causality somewhat backward," tweeted Semafor Washington editor Jordan Weissmann . "I'd guess that a lot of NPR listeners who voted for [Mitt] Romney have changed how they identify politically."

Similarly, Nieman Lab founder Joshua Benton suggested the rise of Trump alienated many NPR-appreciating Republicans from the GOP.

In recent years, NPR has greatly enhanced the percentage of people of color in its workforce and its executive ranks. Four out of 10 staffers are people of color; nearly half of NPR's leadership team identifies as Black, Asian or Latino.

"The philosophy is: Do you want to serve all of America and make sure it sounds like all of America, or not?" Lansing, who stepped down last month, says in response to Berliner's piece. "I'd welcome the argument against that."

"On radio, we were really lagging in our representation of an audience that makes us look like what America looks like today," Lansing says. The U.S. looks and sounds a lot different than it did in 1971, when NPR's first show was broadcast, Lansing says.

A network spokesperson says new NPR CEO Katherine Maher supports Chapin and her response to Berliner's critique.

The spokesperson says that Maher "believes that it's a healthy thing for a public service newsroom to engage in rigorous consideration of the needs of our audiences, including where we serve our mission well and where we can serve it better."

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

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What the data says about abortion in the U.S.

Pew Research Center has conducted many surveys about abortion over the years, providing a lens into Americans’ views on whether the procedure should be legal, among a host of other questions.

In a  Center survey  conducted nearly a year after the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision that  ended the constitutional right to abortion , 62% of U.S. adults said the practice should be legal in all or most cases, while 36% said it should be illegal in all or most cases. Another survey conducted a few months before the decision showed that relatively few Americans take an absolutist view on the issue .

Find answers to common questions about abortion in America, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute, which have tracked these patterns for several decades:

How many abortions are there in the U.S. each year?

How has the number of abortions in the u.s. changed over time, what is the abortion rate among women in the u.s. how has it changed over time, what are the most common types of abortion, how many abortion providers are there in the u.s., and how has that number changed, what percentage of abortions are for women who live in a different state from the abortion provider, what are the demographics of women who have had abortions, when during pregnancy do most abortions occur, how often are there medical complications from abortion.

This compilation of data on abortion in the United States draws mainly from two sources: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute, both of which have regularly compiled national abortion data for approximately half a century, and which collect their data in different ways.

The CDC data that is highlighted in this post comes from the agency’s “abortion surveillance” reports, which have been published annually since 1974 (and which have included data from 1969). Its figures from 1973 through 1996 include data from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and New York City – 52 “reporting areas” in all. Since 1997, the CDC’s totals have lacked data from some states (most notably California) for the years that those states did not report data to the agency. The four reporting areas that did not submit data to the CDC in 2021 – California, Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey – accounted for approximately 25% of all legal induced abortions in the U.S. in 2020, according to Guttmacher’s data. Most states, though,  do  have data in the reports, and the figures for the vast majority of them came from each state’s central health agency, while for some states, the figures came from hospitals and other medical facilities.

Discussion of CDC abortion data involving women’s state of residence, marital status, race, ethnicity, age, abortion history and the number of previous live births excludes the low share of abortions where that information was not supplied. Read the methodology for the CDC’s latest abortion surveillance report , which includes data from 2021, for more details. Previous reports can be found at  stacks.cdc.gov  by entering “abortion surveillance” into the search box.

For the numbers of deaths caused by induced abortions in 1963 and 1965, this analysis looks at reports by the then-U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, a precursor to the Department of Health and Human Services. In computing those figures, we excluded abortions listed in the report under the categories “spontaneous or unspecified” or as “other.” (“Spontaneous abortion” is another way of referring to miscarriages.)

Guttmacher data in this post comes from national surveys of abortion providers that Guttmacher has conducted 19 times since 1973. Guttmacher compiles its figures after contacting every known provider of abortions – clinics, hospitals and physicians’ offices – in the country. It uses questionnaires and health department data, and it provides estimates for abortion providers that don’t respond to its inquiries. (In 2020, the last year for which it has released data on the number of abortions in the U.S., it used estimates for 12% of abortions.) For most of the 2000s, Guttmacher has conducted these national surveys every three years, each time getting abortion data for the prior two years. For each interim year, Guttmacher has calculated estimates based on trends from its own figures and from other data.

The latest full summary of Guttmacher data came in the institute’s report titled “Abortion Incidence and Service Availability in the United States, 2020.” It includes figures for 2020 and 2019 and estimates for 2018. The report includes a methods section.

In addition, this post uses data from StatPearls, an online health care resource, on complications from abortion.

An exact answer is hard to come by. The CDC and the Guttmacher Institute have each tried to measure this for around half a century, but they use different methods and publish different figures.

The last year for which the CDC reported a yearly national total for abortions is 2021. It found there were 625,978 abortions in the District of Columbia and the 46 states with available data that year, up from 597,355 in those states and D.C. in 2020. The corresponding figure for 2019 was 607,720.

The last year for which Guttmacher reported a yearly national total was 2020. It said there were 930,160 abortions that year in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, compared with 916,460 in 2019.

• How the CDC gets its data: It compiles figures that are voluntarily reported by states’ central health agencies, including separate figures for New York City and the District of Columbia. Its latest totals do not include figures from California, Maryland, New Hampshire or New Jersey, which did not report data to the CDC. ( Read the methodology from the latest CDC report .)
• How Guttmacher gets its data: It compiles its figures after contacting every known abortion provider – clinics, hospitals and physicians’ offices – in the country. It uses questionnaires and health department data, then provides estimates for abortion providers that don’t respond. Guttmacher’s figures are higher than the CDC’s in part because they include data (and in some instances, estimates) from all 50 states. ( Read the institute’s latest full report and methodology .)

While the Guttmacher Institute supports abortion rights, its empirical data on abortions in the U.S. has been widely cited by  groups  and  publications  across the political spectrum, including by a  number of those  that  disagree with its positions .

These estimates from Guttmacher and the CDC are results of multiyear efforts to collect data on abortion across the U.S. Last year, Guttmacher also began publishing less precise estimates every few months , based on a much smaller sample of providers.

The figures reported by these organizations include only legal induced abortions conducted by clinics, hospitals or physicians’ offices, or those that make use of abortion pills dispensed from certified facilities such as clinics or physicians’ offices. They do not account for the use of abortion pills that were obtained  outside of clinical settings .

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The annual number of U.S. abortions rose for years after Roe v. Wade legalized the procedure in 1973, reaching its highest levels around the late 1980s and early 1990s, according to both the CDC and Guttmacher. Since then, abortions have generally decreased at what a CDC analysis called  “a slow yet steady pace.”

Guttmacher says the number of abortions occurring in the U.S. in 2020 was 40% lower than it was in 1991. According to the CDC, the number was 36% lower in 2021 than in 1991, looking just at the District of Columbia and the 46 states that reported both of those years.

(The corresponding line graph shows the long-term trend in the number of legal abortions reported by both organizations. To allow for consistent comparisons over time, the CDC figures in the chart have been adjusted to ensure that the same states are counted from one year to the next. Using that approach, the CDC figure for 2021 is 622,108 legal abortions.)

There have been occasional breaks in this long-term pattern of decline – during the middle of the first decade of the 2000s, and then again in the late 2010s. The CDC reported modest 1% and 2% increases in abortions in 2018 and 2019, and then, after a 2% decrease in 2020, a 5% increase in 2021. Guttmacher reported an 8% increase over the three-year period from 2017 to 2020.

As noted above, these figures do not include abortions that use pills obtained outside of clinical settings.

Guttmacher says that in 2020 there were 14.4 abortions in the U.S. per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. Its data shows that the rate of abortions among women has generally been declining in the U.S. since 1981, when it reported there were 29.3 abortions per 1,000 women in that age range.

The CDC says that in 2021, there were 11.6 abortions in the U.S. per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. (That figure excludes data from California, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey.) Like Guttmacher’s data, the CDC’s figures also suggest a general decline in the abortion rate over time. In 1980, when the CDC reported on all 50 states and D.C., it said there were 25 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44.

That said, both Guttmacher and the CDC say there were slight increases in the rate of abortions during the late 2010s and early 2020s. Guttmacher says the abortion rate per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 rose from 13.5 in 2017 to 14.4 in 2020. The CDC says it rose from 11.2 per 1,000 in 2017 to 11.4 in 2019, before falling back to 11.1 in 2020 and then rising again to 11.6 in 2021. (The CDC’s figures for those years exclude data from California, D.C., Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey.)

The CDC broadly divides abortions into two categories: surgical abortions and medication abortions, which involve pills. Since the Food and Drug Administration first approved abortion pills in 2000, their use has increased over time as a share of abortions nationally, according to both the CDC and Guttmacher.

The majority of abortions in the U.S. now involve pills, according to both the CDC and Guttmacher. The CDC says 56% of U.S. abortions in 2021 involved pills, up from 53% in 2020 and 44% in 2019. Its figures for 2021 include the District of Columbia and 44 states that provided this data; its figures for 2020 include D.C. and 44 states (though not all of the same states as in 2021), and its figures for 2019 include D.C. and 45 states.

Guttmacher, which measures this every three years, says 53% of U.S. abortions involved pills in 2020, up from 39% in 2017.

Two pills commonly used together for medication abortions are mifepristone, which, taken first, blocks hormones that support a pregnancy, and misoprostol, which then causes the uterus to empty. According to the FDA, medication abortions are safe  until 10 weeks into pregnancy.

Surgical abortions conducted  during the first trimester  of pregnancy typically use a suction process, while the relatively few surgical abortions that occur  during the second trimester  of a pregnancy typically use a process called dilation and evacuation, according to the UCLA School of Medicine.

In 2020, there were 1,603 facilities in the U.S. that provided abortions,  according to Guttmacher . This included 807 clinics, 530 hospitals and 266 physicians’ offices.

While clinics make up half of the facilities that provide abortions, they are the sites where the vast majority (96%) of abortions are administered, either through procedures or the distribution of pills, according to Guttmacher’s 2020 data. (This includes 54% of abortions that are administered at specialized abortion clinics and 43% at nonspecialized clinics.) Hospitals made up 33% of the facilities that provided abortions in 2020 but accounted for only 3% of abortions that year, while just 1% of abortions were conducted by physicians’ offices.

Looking just at clinics – that is, the total number of specialized abortion clinics and nonspecialized clinics in the U.S. – Guttmacher found the total virtually unchanged between 2017 (808 clinics) and 2020 (807 clinics). However, there were regional differences. In the Midwest, the number of clinics that provide abortions increased by 11% during those years, and in the West by 6%. The number of clinics  decreased  during those years by 9% in the Northeast and 3% in the South.

The total number of abortion providers has declined dramatically since the 1980s. In 1982, according to Guttmacher, there were 2,908 facilities providing abortions in the U.S., including 789 clinics, 1,405 hospitals and 714 physicians’ offices.

The CDC does not track the number of abortion providers.

In the District of Columbia and the 46 states that provided abortion and residency information to the CDC in 2021, 10.9% of all abortions were performed on women known to live outside the state where the abortion occurred – slightly higher than the percentage in 2020 (9.7%). That year, D.C. and 46 states (though not the same ones as in 2021) reported abortion and residency data. (The total number of abortions used in these calculations included figures for women with both known and unknown residential status.)

The share of reported abortions performed on women outside their state of residence was much higher before the 1973 Roe decision that stopped states from banning abortion. In 1972, 41% of all abortions in D.C. and the 20 states that provided this information to the CDC that year were performed on women outside their state of residence. In 1973, the corresponding figure was 21% in the District of Columbia and the 41 states that provided this information, and in 1974 it was 11% in D.C. and the 43 states that provided data.

In the District of Columbia and the 46 states that reported age data to  the CDC in 2021, the majority of women who had abortions (57%) were in their 20s, while about three-in-ten (31%) were in their 30s. Teens ages 13 to 19 accounted for 8% of those who had abortions, while women ages 40 to 44 accounted for about 4%.

The vast majority of women who had abortions in 2021 were unmarried (87%), while married women accounted for 13%, according to  the CDC , which had data on this from 37 states.

In the District of Columbia, New York City (but not the rest of New York) and the 31 states that reported racial and ethnic data on abortion to  the CDC , 42% of all women who had abortions in 2021 were non-Hispanic Black, while 30% were non-Hispanic White, 22% were Hispanic and 6% were of other races.

Looking at abortion rates among those ages 15 to 44, there were 28.6 abortions per 1,000 non-Hispanic Black women in 2021; 12.3 abortions per 1,000 Hispanic women; 6.4 abortions per 1,000 non-Hispanic White women; and 9.2 abortions per 1,000 women of other races, the  CDC reported  from those same 31 states, D.C. and New York City.

For 57% of U.S. women who had induced abortions in 2021, it was the first time they had ever had one,  according to the CDC.  For nearly a quarter (24%), it was their second abortion. For 11% of women who had an abortion that year, it was their third, and for 8% it was their fourth or more. These CDC figures include data from 41 states and New York City, but not the rest of New York.

Nearly four-in-ten women who had abortions in 2021 (39%) had no previous live births at the time they had an abortion,  according to the CDC . Almost a quarter (24%) of women who had abortions in 2021 had one previous live birth, 20% had two previous live births, 10% had three, and 7% had four or more previous live births. These CDC figures include data from 41 states and New York City, but not the rest of New York.

The vast majority of abortions occur during the first trimester of a pregnancy. In 2021, 93% of abortions occurred during the first trimester – that is, at or before 13 weeks of gestation,  according to the CDC . An additional 6% occurred between 14 and 20 weeks of pregnancy, and about 1% were performed at 21 weeks or more of gestation. These CDC figures include data from 40 states and New York City, but not the rest of New York.

About 2% of all abortions in the U.S. involve some type of complication for the woman , according to an article in StatPearls, an online health care resource. “Most complications are considered minor such as pain, bleeding, infection and post-anesthesia complications,” according to the article.

The CDC calculates  case-fatality rates for women from induced abortions – that is, how many women die from abortion-related complications, for every 100,000 legal abortions that occur in the U.S .  The rate was lowest during the most recent period examined by the agency (2013 to 2020), when there were 0.45 deaths to women per 100,000 legal induced abortions. The case-fatality rate reported by the CDC was highest during the first period examined by the agency (1973 to 1977), when it was 2.09 deaths to women per 100,000 legal induced abortions. During the five-year periods in between, the figure ranged from 0.52 (from 1993 to 1997) to 0.78 (from 1978 to 1982).

The CDC calculates death rates by five-year and seven-year periods because of year-to-year fluctuation in the numbers and due to the relatively low number of women who die from legal induced abortions.

In 2020, the last year for which the CDC has information , six women in the U.S. died due to complications from induced abortions. Four women died in this way in 2019, two in 2018, and three in 2017. (These deaths all followed legal abortions.) Since 1990, the annual number of deaths among women due to legal induced abortion has ranged from two to 12.

The annual number of reported deaths from induced abortions (legal and illegal) tended to be higher in the 1980s, when it ranged from nine to 16, and from 1972 to 1979, when it ranged from 13 to 63. One driver of the decline was the drop in deaths from illegal abortions. There were 39 deaths from illegal abortions in 1972, the last full year before Roe v. Wade. The total fell to 19 in 1973 and to single digits or zero every year after that. (The number of deaths from legal abortions has also declined since then, though with some slight variation over time.)

The number of deaths from induced abortions was considerably higher in the 1960s than afterward. For instance, there were 119 deaths from induced abortions in  1963  and 99 in  1965 , according to reports by the then-U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, a precursor to the Department of Health and Human Services. The CDC is a division of Health and Human Services.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published May 27, 2022, and first updated June 24, 2022.

Support for legal abortion is widespread in many countries, especially in Europe

Nearly a year after roe’s demise, americans’ views of abortion access increasingly vary by where they live, by more than two-to-one, americans say medication abortion should be legal in their state, most latinos say democrats care about them and work hard for their vote, far fewer say so of gop, positive views of supreme court decline sharply following abortion ruling, most popular.

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