Relative Poverty Scale Measurement and Trend Analysis Between Provinces in China

After eradicating absolute poverty under the current rural poverty standard (living standard of 2300 RMB per person per year at 2010 constant prices) in 2020, China will enter the post-poverty era, in which the focus of anti-poverty in China will shift to narrowing the gap and pursuing fairness and shared prosperity in relative poverty. Identifying and measuring the scale of the relative poverty group is an essential prerequisite for effective relative poverty management. Based on the reality of China’s extensive territory and unbalanced and uncoordinated regional development, this article calculates the relative poverty and the scale of the poor population in each province separately from the provincial perspective and analyzes their changing trends. It is revealed that the average relative poverty line of each province in China is slightly lower than the social poverty line of middle and high-income countries proposed by the World Bank and higher than the low- and middle-income countries, which is basically in line with the current stage of economic development in China. The average relative poverty incidence in each province is at around 25%, and the incidence of poverty generally shows a decreasing trend during the study period, while the depth and intensity of poverty in some provinces show a gradual increase over time, further confirming the enormity of relative poverty governance in the post-poverty era.