“In the final year of the battle against poverty, it is particularly important for China to evaluate the effectiveness of poverty reduction. This study conducted an in-depth exploration of poverty reduction in 831 impoverished counties and 14 extremely impoverished areas across the country through unique nighttime light remote sensing data. The results show that the economic level of most poverty-stricken counties has significantly improved, but there are still some counties where the nighttime light intensity has decreased, mainly distributed in the western region. In addition, the study also identified four types of nighttime light changes in extremely impoverished areas, revealing the clustering and constraint phenomena of poverty-stricken counties in specific regions. Of particular note is that poverty-stricken counties implementing poverty alleviation pathways such as infrastructure, characteristic industries, asset returns, and relocation have shown significant changes in nighttime lighting. This study not only provides us with a new perspective for evaluating the effectiveness of poverty reduction, but also provides important references for the construction of long-term mechanisms to address relative poverty.”