With a total population of 1.3 billion people, China has become the second largest economy in the world and is now regarded as an upper middle income country. China’s poverty rate fell from 84 percent in 1981 to 13 percent in 2008 as measured by the percentage of people living on the equivalent of US$1.25 or less per day in 2005 purchasing price parity terms. This means that the country has successfully lifted more than 500 million people out of poverty mostly thanks to a rapid economic growth averaging about 10 percent per year.