"The Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers decided in 1994 to initiate and finance a comparative study to understand better the structure and development of poverty in five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). The main question posed is how the number of people living with low incomes has changed over time, and what characterizes such households? Since no official poverty line has been defined in the Nordic countries, the comparative study examines a set of different definitions of poverty and analyses the change in poverty rates and poverty composition in light of those different definitions."--Jacket.