Half of Britain's population has spent at least a year of the past decade living in poverty, British government figures have showed.
Between 1991 and 2001 around half of people lived in households with incomes below 60 per cent of the average - the government's definition of poverty - for at least 12 months, according to the Household Panel Survey.
In 2001 the median income was £330 a week, meaning those who had less than 60 per cent would have been living on £198 a week or less.
Single pensioners, members of one-parent families, unemployed households, people in social housing and people with no qualifications were most likely to be persistently on low incomes, the research found.
It said there was little change during the 11 years in the proportion of the population living off a low income for three or more years out of any four-year period.
There was a slight increase in the number of pensioners living in poverty, and a fall in child poverty. But these figures had not changed much since 1997, it added.
The British government has set a target to reduce child poverty by a quarter by 2004, by half by 2010 and to irradiate it by 2020, starting from the figures for 1998/1999.
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: The data does not take into account the effect of many of the Government's policies to reduce poverty, such as tax credits, increases to benefits, and child support reforms".
PA