Nearly one-third of the Northern Ireland population is living below the poverty line, according to research published today.
Academics at Queen's University Belfast have found that 185,000 households containing over 500,000 people were living below the poverty line.
The research revealed there was a higher proportion of families in poverty than in the Republic or in Britain.
Professors Paddy Hillyard and Eithne McLaughlin were detailing their findings at a seminar of senior social scientists and policy makers meeting in Belfast to explore how far the government is succeeding in abolishing child poverty, reducing social exclusion and improving equal opportunities in Northern Ireland.
Professor Hillyard said Northern Ireland was one of the most unequal societies in the developed world.
Poverty was measured by two yardsticks: low income and deprivation - having to go without things that the public regard as necessities of life - money to pay for heating, electricity and telephone bills on time, and new clothes.
The reports - The Bare Necessitiesand The Bottom Lineare shortly to be published by Save the Children in Northern Ireland.
PA