The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) China has recently published a report measuring poverty with Big Data in China, with the support of Baidu Big Data Lab. The report combines conventional data sources with big data to examine living standards in 2,284 counties across China.

The report presents an alternative way of measuring poverty, using the Living Standard Index (LSI), which is developed based on the fundamentals of UNDP's Human Development Index. It combines eight indicators that cover important elements of well-being: access to sanitary toilets, access to indoor kitchens, and access to safe drinking water, mobile Internet coverage, living services coverage, road coverage, nighttime light intensity, and financial services coverage.

According to the report, China's average score on the living standards index is 61. A total of 19 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions rank above the average score, including 11 provinces and municipalities from the eastern coast and 8 provinces and autonomous regions from central China.

The first and second places go to Zhejiang and Jiangsu, two south China provinces, followed by Beijing and Shanghai.

Read on to see which else are on the top 10 list.

 Tianjin

Tianjin [China.org.cn]

Living standards index: 66.5