New Poverty Threshold

     The new poverty line of RMB 1,067 a year as defined in 2009 by the Chinese government raises the country's impoverished population to 43.2 million, or three percent of the total. Earlier calculations based on a yearly income of RMB 786 showed a figure of 14.97 million living at below subsistence level. People on incomes of less than RMB 786 a year are defined as living in "abject poverty," and those earning between RMB 786 and RMB 1,067 as "low-income population." The new poverty threshold is still well below the international poverty line of US $1 a day.