Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi

This paper examines some of the methodological difficulties that must be confronted in an attempt to measure the distribution of economic status in an area where households keep no records and where the members of individual households engage in more than one income earning activity. The paper also presents selected measures of the distribution of economic status derived from a survey carried out in Mbere Division in Eastern Kenya in 1973/ 74. Some possible explanations of the variation in economic status between households are also considered.