Our work on financial poverty links to our work on financial disadvantage, and builds on the findings of our disadvantage study.

The proportion of rural households in relative poverty rose from 16% to 19% between 2004 and 2007 - the equivalent of 1.6 million people in 2007.

Around 20% of children and pensioners in rural areas were living in poverty in 2007, as well as one in six working-age adults. The increasing proportion of children living in poor working households and the dramatic rise in the proportion of pensioners living in poverty are particularly striking.

Our report 'Rural Financial Poverty: Priorities for action' updates the priorities for addressing financial poverty in rural England that we put to central Government and others in 2006. It re-examines the evidence on rural poverty and it looks at how the policy landscape has changed.

Download 'Rural Financial Poverty: Priorities for action'

Read the companion paper 'Rural Financial Poverty: Good practice'