Abstract
A favorable business climate, high-quality human capital and good governance serve as the foundation of economic development. However, the quality of human capital depends on the level of socio-economic development. Poverty indicators are important indicators of social progress. The methodological strategy of this study aims to study the categorization of poverty in various poverty assessment methodologies, the analysis of social categories and boundaries that symbolically define who the poor are, why they are poor, and how to combat poverty. The article presents the results of the analysis of approaches to the categorization of poverty in various methodologies of its assessment, classification of factors leading to poverty, the markers of the discourse of poverty in the rhetoric of domestic media as a specific public arena, which symbolically determine poor population, the reasons of poverty and the ways to fight poverty. The profile and structure of relational poverty have become important indicators for understanding the sources of social tension in the country and regulating government programs for the poor. The relevance of the study lies in conducting a comprehensive analysis and systematization of methodological approaches to poverty assessment, and content analysis of media materials on the symbolic categorization of poverty issues in the national media. To ensure the country's productive economic and social development, it is necessary to pay attention to markers of relational and latent poverty, which have been at the center of research attention in modern economic and sociological approaches but have not yet received sufficient attention in the field of public policy.