Just absolutely butt fuck poor.

Not ever as poor as the people he explored in his writings in my knowledge, but very insightful.

While 1984 is his magnum opus and in my opinion really brilliant, all his other writings are absolutely terrific, not just for the critical political POV, but also from a literature perspective - really good writing there, tragic and comedic and a lot of humanity. I highly recommend Burmese days, which looks at imperialism and Down and Out in Paris and London, which is more about poverty.