In China alone, the number of the poor decreased from 835 million in 1981 to 173 million in 2008, which meant a sharp decrease of China’s poverty rate from 84 to 13 per cent. Progress in several other countries of the region has also been impressive. For the East Asia and Pacific region as a whole, the incidence of poverty declined from 77 to 14 per cent during the period 1981-2008.