This paper asks the question: "Which characteristics affect a person's poverty status in
rural China in the middle of the 90s?" We use a large survey conducted from January to
March 1996 for the reference year 1995 covering around 8 000 households from 19
provinces. The poverty line is set at a level of 908 yuan per year and person which results
in a poverty rate of 14.9 percent. Various logistic regression models are estimated.
The results show that a household's poverty status greatly depends on where the
household is located. The analysis shows that the spatial variation in the poverty risk is a
major explanation of why minority persons in rural China are more poverty prone than
the majority. Poverty in rural China also has a demographic component and depends on
what the members do, own and has command over.