During the 198Os, the majority of developing countries experienced serious macroeconomic shocks, leading them to adopt stabilisation and structural adjustment programs. Following the public debate on the harmful effects of thèse programs, numerous studies on poverty hâve been undertaken in the last 15 years using microeconomic data sets, particularly those derived from household surveys. This article présents an overview of the principal concepts used in quantifying poverty, especially in relation to the choice of the standard of living measure for individuals, the détermination of the poverty Une, and the measure of poverty. Following this présentation of the différent analytical tools, they are then applied to a séries of Ghanaian household surveys.