Noun

(en-noun)

The quality or state of being poor or indigent; want or scarcity of means of subsistence; indigence; need.

* {{quote-magazine, title=Towards the end of poverty

, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=America’s poverty' line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the '''poverty''' barrier. But '''poverty'''’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own ' poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}

Any deficiency of elements or resources that are needed or desired, or that constitute richness; as, poverty of soil; poverty of the blood; poverty of ideas.

Noun

(en noun)

Deficiency in amount or quality; a falling short; lack.

A situation wherein, or amount whereby, spending exceeds government revenue.

* 2013 September 28, , " London Is Special, but Not That Special," New York Times (retrieved 28 September 2013):

Economically, too, London is startlingly different. The capital, unlike the country as a whole, has no budget deficit : London’s public spending matches the taxes paid in the city. The average Londoner contributes 70 percent more to Britain’s national income than people in the rest of the country.

*