Constructing a Food Poverty Indicator for Ireland Using the Survey on Income and Living Conditions

There is no national definition or measure of food poverty in Ireland. This paper aims to construct a deprivation based measure of food poverty using deprivation indicators from the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC). Food poverty has emerged as an issue of policy debate in Ireland, but the understanding of this issue is stymied by the absence of a methodology for measuring the problem in a quantitative and comparative way. The paper proposes a composite measure of food poverty based on a lack of one or more of three food deprivation items. This methodology shows that 10 per cent of the Irish population was in food poverty in 2010. This paper identifies households most at risk of food poverty and explores links with economic strain, health status and social class.