About half of Kenya's rural population (approximately 9 million people) was the poverty line in 1992, a proportion unchanged from 1982. In urban areas, approximately a million and a quarter persons or 30 percent of the population was below the poverty line. In the early 1980s, Kenya's social indicators were distinctly more favorable than those of most countries in the region, and there was further progress. But many indicators stagnated in the early 1990s. There are also persistent differences between rural and urban areas and between the poor and the non-poor. These are the findings of the Kenya poverty assessment (March 1995) which is one of the few studies in the region to document and measure changes in poverty indicators over a decade. Using data from a number of sources, it shows that while Kenya achieved some improvement in its social indicators, the lack of sustained per capita income growth resulted in continued poverty for an increasing number. And that the benefits of good health and education did not accrue to all.