Poverty in Poland and the United States: A Comparison of Key Characteristics, Composition, and Prospects

Abstract

This study provides a comparative approach to assess the state of Polish poverty. To do so, poverty in Poland and the United States is presented in terms of selected general, shared characteristics and particularly vulnerable societal groups. Using official, primarily income based, statistics for Poland and the United States, we conclude that a higher percentage of the overall population in the United States is poor and, relative to median country-specific incomes, that the US poverty is deeper than in Poland. In addition, more children, the elderly, and the disabled are poor in America than in Poland; the breadth of poverty is wider in the United States and, perhaps most importantly, may in some important ways also be more intractable.