Villagers pick pears at a poverty alleviation base in Huoqiu County, east China's Anhui Province, Jan. 8, 2020. The last nine poverty-stricken county-level regions in east China's Anhui Province have been removed from the country's list of impoverished counties, according to an announcement issued by the provincial government Wednesday. This marks that all 31 impoverished county-level regions in Anhui have shaken off poverty, amid the country's efforts to eradicate absolute poverty by the end of 2020. (Xinhua/Han Xiaoyu) 

The last nine poverty-stricken county-level regions in east China's Anhui Province have been removed from the country's list of impoverished counties, according to an announcement issued by the provincial government Wednesday.

This marks that all 31 impoverished county-level regions in Anhui have shaken off poverty, amid the country's efforts to eradicate absolute poverty by the end of 2020.

Anhui had a population of 63.65 million as of 2019, official data showed. The poor population in the province had decreased from 4.84 million in 2014 to 87,000 in 2019, and the poverty headcount ratio had been reduced from 9.1 percent to 0.16 percent during the period, according to the provincial poverty relief office.

A county can be removed from the list if its impoverished population drops to less than 2 percent, according to a national mechanism established in April 2016 to eliminate poverty in affected regions. The ratio can be loosened to 3 percent in the western region.

By the end of 2019, 5.51 million people in China were still living in poverty.

"We will continue our work to prevent people from returning to poverty, and help the remaining poor population shake off poverty by all means," said Jiang Hong, director of Anhui provincial poverty relief office