Having adequate material resources is central to the well-being of people in both developing and industrialised nations. In western industrialised nations, lack of income and an inability to afford the types of goods and services that most people in a society have access to or to participate in social activities that are taken for granted typically figure strongly in attempts to operationalise the concept of social exclusion. Drawing on empirical data from EU nations, Asghar Zaidi not only highlights the degree to which older people across Europe are prone to the risk of income poverty, but...

Having adequate material resources is central to the well-being of people in both developing and industrialised nations. In western industrialised nations, lack of income and an inability to afford the types of goods and services that most people in a society have access to or to participate in social activities that are taken for granted typically figure strongly in attempts to operationalise the concept of social exclusion. Drawing on empirical data from EU nations, Asghar Zaidi not only highlights the degree to which older people across Europe are prone to the risk of income poverty, but also examines their capacity to afford key items of expenditure. The chapter shows the substantial variation that exists across European nations in relation to older people's access to material resources, and in particular the extent to which cross-national differences exist arising from the measurement approach adopted.