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There is a list of 12 people in a certain area together with their Net Worth (in Billions/Millions). In that list, there is a caption "Juan Dela Cruz is the poorest", which is unacceptable to hear from most of our people.

It is somewhat great to hear when someone rephrase it as "least rich", however, most readers from our people don't accept this as a valid (I don't know why).

One rule for this is, "poorest among the rich" can't be accepted either.

Is there anything else we should use? Does "least rich" really bad to use?

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    "Least rich" sounds OK to me but "least wealthy" is perhaps a little better. Anything including 'poor' in this context sounds ironic at least if not downright sarcastic. Out of interest who are 'your people' from whom the readership is drawn, are they native English speakers?" – BoldBen Oct 29 '20 at 10:03
  • @BoldBen they are indeed English speakers, but most of the time they are doubting to use words/phrases that are rarely used. – Shiz Oct 30 '20 at 2:39
  • I've no idea why they would regard 'least rich' as a rarely used phrase. It's perfectly normal to me, though perhaps less frequently used than 'least wealthy'. Are they native speakers of a specific origin, Anglo Indian for example? – BoldBen Nov 2 '20 at 10:37
  • I would say "....at the bottom of the list." Not a single word, but clear, and I hope not offensive, except maybe to Dela Cruz. Has the advantage of referring back to "a list" mentioned in the Question. – ab2 Nov 5 '20 at 15:02
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"the poorest" doesn't make sense when talking about millionaires and billionaires.

I agree with "least wealthy" as suggested by @BoldBen.

Also possible is "lowest net worth"

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  • thank you for this – Shiz Oct 30 '20 at 2:35

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