贫困县
中国自20世纪80年代中期在全国范围内开展有组织、有计划、大规模扶贫开发以来，一个基本做法是将贫困面较大、贫困程度较深的县作为实施扶贫开发的基本组织单位。这是因为，县一级是中国基层行政建制中组织机构最全、公共管理职能最强的基层组织，是承上启下的最重要环节，离贫困村、贫困人口的距离最近，有利于开展有针对性的扶贫开发工作。此外，将贫困面较大、贫困程度较重的县作为扶贫开发的重点单位，有利于将较大比重的贫困人口纳入扶贫工作范围，集中力量进行扶持。
1986年国家第一次确定贫困县，并以县为单位，以1985年年人均收入低于150元和少数民族地区年人均纯收入低于200元为标准，确定了331个国家重点扶持贫困县。1994年颁布的《国家八七扶贫攻坚计划（1994-2000年）》第二次确定贫困县，将1992年全县农民人均纯收入低于400元的县全部纳入国家级贫困县，原来的贫困县高于700元的一律退出。这次调整确定了592个国家重点扶持贫困县。2001年国家颁布《中国农村扶贫开发纲要（2001-2010年）》对国家重点扶持贫困县再次进行调整，改称国家扶贫开发工作重点县，总体规模仍保持592个。
2011年《中国农村扶贫开发纲要（2011-2020年）》确定14个集中连片特殊困难地区（简称连片特困地区）作为扶贫攻坚主战场，覆盖680个重点县。这些县加上没有在片区范围的国家扶贫开发工作重点县共832个，统称“贫困县”。国家确定2020年贫困县全部摘帽的就是这832个县。
Poor Counties
China began large-scale planned poverty alleviation and development campaigns in the mid-1980s. The general approach was to designate poor counties as the basic units to receive state support. This is because in China, counties are the grassroots administrative divisions with complete organizations and strong public management. They are a key link in China's administrative system which can effectively carry out targeted policies to help poor villages and poor people out of poverty.
Designating counties with large poor populations and severe poverty as the focus of development-oriented alleviation has brought these poor populations under the umbrella of national campaigns and concentrated the resources available to help them.
China designated poor counties for the first time in 1986. A total of 331 key counties whose per-capita income was below 150 yuan in 1985 were targeted for state assistance. The threshold in ethnic minority areas was below 200 yuan.
In 1994, the state renewed the list of poor counties in the Seven-year Program for Lifting 80 Million People Out of Poverty (1994-2000). Counties where farmers had a per-capita net income below 400 yuan in 1992 were designated as national-level poor counties entitled to state support, and those previously listed as "poor" were removed from the list if farmers there had a per-capita net income higher than 700 yuan. In total, 592 counties across China were listed as targets for national poverty alleviation.
In 2001, the state released the Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Alleviation of China's Rural Areas (2001-2010), and adjusted the list of key counties for poverty alleviation. The total number remained 592.
In 2011, the renewed Outline for Development-oriented Poverty Alleviation of China's Rural Areas (2011-2020) defined 14 contiguous areas of extreme poverty as the main battlefields against poverty, covering 680 key counties. Together with other poor counties located elsewhere, a total of 832 counties were designated as "key poor" ones where poverty must be eliminated by the year 2020.