The analysis of within-country disparities is based on data from household surveys. Weighting the regional mean by population, however, will centre it largely around the values of China and India. To give a clearer picture, this report uses a simple average that gives equal weight to all countries large and small. This is illustrated for 2004 the year with the highest number of poverty headcount ratios computed from actual household surveys (Figure II-1). The regional average for this 2004 data of $1.25-per-day poverty level is around 22 per cent, but across countries the poverty rate ranges from 0 in Malaysia to 55.1 per cent in Nepal. As this chart also shows, among the subregions, some of the highest poverty rates - above 40 per cent — are found in South Asia.