Household size and composition are often overlooked when income poverty is measured. This leads to a distorted picture of poverty and lack of understanding of the relationship between household size and poverty. Empirical studies based on household studies in developing countries have virtually always found that poverty tends to increase with household size. But the findings that large households are poorer is based on the assumption that all individuals consume the same amount, and that two or more persons living together consume the same as if they were living separately.