Charles Booth

Charles Booth 1840-1916, English social investigator, pioneer in developing the social survey method. Aided by the notable social scientist Beatrice Potter Webb , he made an exhaustive statistical study of poverty in London, showing its extent, causes, and location. This was published as Life and Labour of the People in London (17 vol., 1891-1903). Booth was also active in reform groups interested in the poor and aged. His other writings include Old Age Pensions and the Aged Poor (1899) and Industrial Unrest and Trade Union Policy (1914).

Bibliography: See his selected writings (1967); study by T. Simey and M. Simey (1960).

Booth, Charles (1840–1916). Booth, a wealthy Liverpool shipowner and social investigator, refused to accept the findings of the Social Democratic Federation that about 25 per cent of the working population were living in poverty. He began his own investigation and published seventeen volumes on the life and labour of London's poor between 1889 and 1903. His main finding was that the SDF estimate was too low: 30.7 per cent were living in poverty. Booth greatly influenced the practice of later social investigators and the Liberal government (1906–14).

Booth, Charles (1840–1916) A Victorian businessman and social reformer who produced the first major empirical survey of the Life and Labour of the People of London, in seventeen volumes, between 1891 and 1903. Using a subsistence definition of poverty he found (contrary to his expectations) that nearly 31 per cent of those surveyed were in poverty. His work was the first major survey in British sociology and has influenced all subsequent debates on poverty.