What does this website cover?

The site covers London poverty (as measured by low income) and a range of other problems experienced by Londoners that tend to be associated with it, including unemployment and worklessness, low pay, poor health, weak educational outcomes and inadequate housing.

Our basic material is statistical – official statistics almost invariably – which are of high quality, wide-ranging and readily available. In addition, we also draw attention to groups not covered by the official statistics – those working outside the formal economy and those who lack official documentation. Read about London's hidden population.

The picture painted here is not, by any means, entirely bleak. Low income and poverty do not automatically and inevitably translate into other problems – and we include some striking exceptions.

A website such as this has to be selective and some groups are inevitably under-represented. One such group is pensioners. We suspect that the root of this lies in the way that official anti-poverty strategies prioritise 'work' as the answer to the problem – which naturally marginalises pensioners. This may be compounded by the way that pensioner poverty receded under the previous Government.

The data also does not allow consideration of very local differences in London or of the differences within broad ethnic or national categories. See more on official ethnic classifications.

Posted on 1 May 2009