Scarcity of basic needs

Before the industrial revolution, poverty had been mostly accepted as inevitable as economies produced little, making wealth scarce. In Antwerp and Lyon, two of the largest cities in western Europe, by 1600 three-quarters of the total population were too poor to pay taxes. In 18th century England, half the population was at least occasionally dependent on charity for subsistence. Food shortages were also common before modern agricultural technology and in places that lack them today, such as nitrogen fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation methods. For example, Chinese mass production of goods has made what was once considered luxuries, such as vehicles or computers, inexpensive and thus more accessible to many who were otherwise too poor to afford them.

Rises in the costs of living make poor people less able to afford items. Poor people spend a greater portion of their budgets on food than richer people. As a result poor households, and those near the poverty threshold can be particularly vulnerable to increases in food prices. For example in late 2007 increases in the price of grains led to food riots in some countries. The World Bank warned that 100 million people were at risk of sinking deeper into poverty. Threats to the supply of food may also be caused by drought and the water crisis. Intensive farming often leads to a vicious cycle of exhaustion of soil fertility and decline of agricultural yields. Approximately 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded. In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue, the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to UNU's Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.

Health care can be widely unavailable to the poor. The loss of health care workers emigrating from impoverished countries has a damaging effect. For example, an estimated 100,000 Philippine nurses emigrated between 1994 and 2006. There are more Ethiopian doctors in Chicago than in Ethiopia.

Overpopulation and lack of access to birth control methods drive poverty The world's population is expected to reach nearly 9 billion in 2040. However, the reverse is also true, that poverty causes overpopulation as it gives women little power to plan childhood, have educational attainment, or a career.