A chocolate maker's son measured poverty by the cost of a minimum diet

In 1899 Seebohm Rowntree, of the York chocolate family, surveyed working-class households across the city and set a poverty line based on the bare cost of food, rent and essentials. He found nearly 28% of York's population lived in poverty, close to Charles Booth's figure for London, and showed poverty peaked at predictable life stages, like childhood and old age. His work shaped early welfare reforms.

— B. Seebohm Rowntree, Poverty: A Study of Town Life — 1901
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