The most well known approach to the study of poverty was originally adopted by the former European Economic Community. For the comparative study of poverty in Europe, the meted proposed to establish the reference poverty threshhold at a relative statistical level, set at 50% of the average of net disposable national income per equivalent adult. In this way, in accordance with this approach, households may be considered to be poor with income below 50% of average disposable income per equivalent consumption unit.

The equivalent classic scale used in this approach was established in the O'Higgins study (1987), translated as the following equivalent values:

In this context, the income per equivalent adult are equal to the disposable income for households divided by the adjusted equivalence factor for each of the households. Along these lines, the lines of poverty for households made up of two people and more are derived from multiplying the corresponding amount to the poverty threshhold for a sole person by the corresponding equivalence factor to the size of the corresponding household.

The poverty threshholds that are defined applying this meted, in the versión developed in Spain in the pionneer studies by EDIS and Cáritas are the following for the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (ACBC):

Threshholds of maintenance poverty according to the European statistical method
(Data in euros)

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