Drawing on 297 national sample surveys spanning 88 countries, we find that
there was a net decrease in the overall incidence of both absolute and rela
tive consumption poverty between 1987 and 1998. But it was not enough to re
duce the total number of poor by various definitions. The incidence of abso
lute poverty fell in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East-North Africa,
while it rose in Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe-Central Asia, Over
the whole data set, interpersonal distribution improved slightly from the p
oint of view of the poor, due mainly to growth in China.