Official data points to a sizeable decline in the number of Chinese living in rural poverty in 2018.
The poverty rate as of the end of 2018 was 1.7%, for a decline of 1.4 percentage points compared to the year previously.
NBS data further indicates that during the period from the end of 2012 to the end of 2018 the number of Chinese living in rural poverty fell by 82.39 million from 98.99 million at the start of the period.
The decline in China’s poverty rate from 10.2% in 2012 to 1.7% at the end of 2018 marks a decline of 8.5 percentage points.
Broken down in terms of region, eastern China’s impoverished rural population was 1.47 million at the end of 2018, for a YoY decline of 1.53 million; central China’s impoverished rural population was 5.97 million, for a fall of 5.15 million, while western China’s impoverished rural population was 9.16 million, for a drop of 7.18 million.
In 2018 the average disposable incomes of residents in impoverished rural villages saw a real increase of 8.3% to reach 10,371 yuan, 1.7 percentage points ahead of the growth rate for all Chinese villages.
The average disposable income of residents in deeply impoverished regions was 9668 yuan, for a nominal YoY rise of 10.7%.
