This report is a product of the Poverty Assessment and Knowledge Management Programme, sponsored by the Asian Development Bank through a technical assistance grant. This paper uses household survey data from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s to describe patterns of variation in the situation of poor people across the country. Poverty is defined mainly in terms of consumption, but complemented with measures of human poverty. There is also a short description of the survey data and its uses for poverty measurement and analysis. A comparison is also made of consumption poverty patterns with regional patterns in human poverty. These patterns are compared with the distribution of Samurdhi benefits at the regional level. The benefits of Samurdhi are also discussed.