In 1980 living standards in China were the lowest among the G20 countries. Since then, median income in China has grown at an average pace of nearly 12% a year: twice the rate of a fast-growing economy like South Korea and three times faster than India. As a result, China’s middle class is richer today than Brazil’s, according to data from the Global Consumption and Income Project, which compares disposable incomes across countries.

A new database, Global Consumption and Income Project (GCIP), suggests that the official figures might be understating the extent of poverty. Even if one adopts a slightly more charitable poverty line of around Rs.38 per day for 2011-12 (i.e. $2.5 per day in purchasing power parity terms), the poverty rate would be 47%, more than double the official statistics