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Charles Booth

philanthropist Social researcher

English pioneer of the social survey.

Background

Booth was born in Liverpool on Mar. 30, 1840, to a prosperous middle-class family.

Education

Royal Institute Scholar,Liverpool. Doctor of Science (honorary). Doctor of Civil Law (honorary).

Doctor of Laws.

Career

In Liverpool he developed an interest in the poor, but it was not until he suffered a serious breakdown in health in 1873, and subsequently moved to London, that he decided to examine the extent to which working-class conditions had been influenced by the 19th-century social and industrial changes. The inquiry became more precise three years later when he chose a statistical method of investigation and began to employ a team of assistants. He set out to classify London's population in terms of employment and income and to measure the volume of poverty. This was the start of a prolonged inquiry into the life and labor of the people of London, which kept Booth busy until 1903 and the results of which were to fill 17 large volumes (Life and Labour of the People in London). Booth's main conclusion, that over 30 percent of London's population lived in poverty, shocked contemporaries and stimulated the search for new social policies. His work ranged more widely, however, than the investigation of poverty. He was also concerned, for example, with how people earned their living and what influence religion exerted over their lives.

Booth was appointed a privy councilor and a fellow of the Royal Society, and received honorary doctorates from the universities of Cambridge, Liverpool, and Oxford. He died on Nov. 16, 1916.

Membership

Fellow of the Royal Society. Clubs: Reform, Athenieum.