Abstract
This chapter reviews the early literature on the poverty population and the underclass, and presents some historical statistics on the composition of the poverty population as a whole, and contrasts the characteristics of the short and the longer term poor. It summarizes what is known about the number and characteristics of the long-term poor, to contrast them with those who are poor for shorter periods, and to consider whether in fact they can be said to make up an underclass. The chapter considers the relationship between persistent poverty and the underclass, and discusses the extent to which the long-term poor may or may not be part of such a class. It assesses the state of our knowledge concerning the determinants of long-term poverty. The chapter examines the questions: What proportion of the persistently poor population also shares such characteristics, and how does the composition of this population compare to the poverty population as a whole?
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