Research

Sources: National Bureau of Statistics, China Rural Household Survey Statistical Yearbook, 2011 (1978-1999 data); National Bureau of Statistics, Poverty Monitoring Report of Rural China, 2011 (2000-2010 data); National Bureau of Statistics, annual Statistical Communiqué of the People's Republic of China on the National Economic and Social Development (2011-2013 data)

Figure 2.11
Over the past three decades, progress in rural poverty reduction has been tremendous, as measured by any of China’s official poverty lines. The Government has increased official rural poverty lines twice since 2000. It adopted a national low-income line of RMB 1,274 (at 2010 prices) in 2000, in addition to the absolute poverty line which had been used for years, and then the low-income line was used as the only poverty line since 2008. In 2011 when the Government launched the new ten-year Rural Poverty Reduction Strategy (2011–2020), the official poverty line was increased to RMB 2,300 (at 2010 prices, equivalent to 2005 PPP US$1.6 per person per day). The near-doubling of the poverty line means that more people are now eligible for government assistance, reflecting both the Government’s increased fiscal capacity and its greater attention to poverty alleviation. In 2013, there were 82.5 million or 8.5 per cent of rural residents living below the new poverty line of RMB 2,300.