Beijing：Over 21 million people are living below the poverty line in China’s ethnic autonomous regions, accounting for 52.5 percent of the overall rural poverty population, according to a report posted Thursday on www.seac.gov.cn, the official website of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC).

By the end of 2008, the number of poor people who live under the poverty threshold of 1,196 yuan ($175 ) per head dropped by 1.5 million to 21.01 million compared to the previous year, and the poverty rate also declined by one point to 17.6 percent, the statistic report released by the Department of Economic Development, SEAC after a nationwide inspection showed.

Despite the declining trend, it is 13.4 points higher than the 4.2% national poverty rate. For three consecutive years, the poor in ethnic autonomous regions have accounted for a growing percentage of the overall rural population in poverty—40.07 million. The figures were 52.2% in 2007 and 44.5% in 2006.

Over two million people became poor last year due to illness-related reasons, an increase of 421,000 than the previous year.

The government invested a total of 11.6 billion yuan in 2008 to ethnic autonomous regions and provided safe water to 6.25 million people in these regions, according to the report. But 45 million people (not including Tibetans) are facing the problem of water safety and over three million people (not including populations in Tibet and Gansu) still need to be resettled due to a lack of basic living conditions, the statistics showed.

The report suggested improving and adjusting the national poverty alleviation policy, adopting a flexible approach in regions with ethnic minority communities, and also researching the preferential policies for ethnic populations.

China has five ethnic autonomous regions—Inner-Mongolia, Xinjiang, Guangxi, Ningxia and Tibet—30 autonomous prefectures and 120 autonomous counties (banners).