Table of Contents
Definition of Relative Poverty
(noun) A type of poverty that is determined by income distribution over a given population and defined according to societal norms.
Example of Relative Poverty
- An individual with a low income, owns a used car while their neighbor has a higher income and just bought a new car.
Relative Poverty Pronunciation
Syllabification: rel·a·tive pov·er·ty
Audio Pronunciation
Phonetic Spelling
- American English – /rEl-uh-tiv pAHv-uhr-tee/
- British English – /rE-luh-tiv pOv-uh-tee/
International Phonetic Alphabet
- American English – /ˈrɛlətɪv ˈpɑvərti/
- British English – /ˈrɛlətɪv ˈpɒvəti/
Usage Notes
- Plural: relative poverties
- Relative poverty is contrasted to absolute poverty. Relative poverty is a subjective assessment and absolute poverty is an objective measurement.
- Also called secondary poverty.
Related Video
Additional Information
- Economic Sociology Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
- Word origin of “relative” and “poverty” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
- Sachs, Jonathan. 2005. The End of Poverty: How We Can Make It End in Our Lifetime. London: Penguin.
Related Terms
Works Consulted
Andersen, Margaret L., and Howard Francis Taylor. 2011. Sociology: The Essentials. 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Ferrante, Joan. 2011a. Seeing Sociology: An Introduction. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Ferrante, Joan. 2011b. Sociology: A Global Perspective. 7th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Ferris, Kerry, and Jill Stein. 2010. The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. 2nd ed. New York: Norton.
Griffiths, Heather, Nathan Keirns, Eric Strayer, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Gail Scaramuzzo, Tommy Sadler, Sally Vyain, Jeff Bry, Faye Jones. 2016. Introduction to Sociology 2e. Houston, TX: OpenStax.
Hughes, Michael, and Carolyn J. Kroehler. 2011. Sociology: The Core. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Kendall, Diana. 2011. Sociology in Our Times. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Macionis, John. 2012. Sociology. 14th ed. Boston: Pearson.
Macionis, John, and Kenneth Plummer. 2012. Sociology: A Global Introduction. 4th ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.
Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).
Ravelli, Bruce, and Michelle Webber. 2016. Exploring Sociology: A Canadian Perspective. 3rd ed. Toronto: Pearson.
Schaefer, Richard. 2013. Sociology: A Brief Introduction. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Scott, John, and Gordon Marshall. 2005. A Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Shepard, Jon M. 2010. Sociology. 11th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Shepard, Jon M., and Robert W. Greene. 2003. Sociology and You. New York: Glencoe.
Stolley, Kathy S. 2005. The Basics of Sociology. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Thompson, William E., and Joseph V. Hickey. 2012. Society in Focus: An Introduction to Sociology. 7th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Thorpe, Christopher, Chris Yuill, Mitchell Hobbs, Sarah Tomley, and Marcus Weeks. 2015. The Sociology Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained. London: Dorling Kindersley.
Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/).
Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Wikimedia Foundation. (http://en.wiktionary.org).
Cite the Definition of Relative Poverty
ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “relative poverty.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved December 2, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/relative-poverty/).
APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)
relative poverty. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/relative-poverty/
Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “relative poverty.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed December 2, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/relative-poverty/.
MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)
“relative poverty.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 2 Dec. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/relative-poverty/>.