TAIYUAN, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- North China's Shanxi Province lifted 649,000 residents out of poverty in 2018, with its poverty rate dropping to 1.1 percent, authorities said Tuesday.

According to the provincial poverty alleviation office, a total of 2,252 impoverished villages in the province came out of poverty last year, with the per capita disposable income of rural residents in these areas rising to 8,210 yuan (about 1,200 U.S. dollars), up 12 percent.

As one of the poorest provinces in China, Shanxi had 3,173 villages and 900,000 residents living below the poverty line by the end of 2017, with a poverty ratio of 3.9 percent.

China aims to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020.