This paper has been prepared as one of the background papers for the Poverty Assessment for Sri Lanka and attempts to lay out the evidence on evolution of poverty in Sri Lanka over the last decade or so. The paper focuses particularly on understanding how the pattern of poverty reduction is related to growth in consumption and incomes, as well as the change in distribution of these measures. Section I of this paper presents evidence from household data on the trends and patterns of consumption poverty in Sri Lanka during the last decade, focusing on widening inequality between regions and provinces. Section II attempts to draw links between poverty trends and movements in growth and inequality measures, including the sectoral pattern of growth during recent years. Section III examines the correlates of poverty, to understand which underlying factors explain the wide geographical differences in income and poverty outcomes.