BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- China has lifted 700 million rural residents out of poverty since the reform and opening-up campaign began in 1978, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.

From 1978 to 2014, the rural population living below China's poverty line in current price terms shrank by an annual average of 19.45 million people, or 6.4 percent year on year, according to an article published on the NBS website ahead of the 23rd International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, which is on Saturday.

As of the end of 2014, China had 70.17 million rural residents living below the country's poverty line. The poverty line is updated annually based on current prices, and was set at 2,800 yuan (440 U.S. dollars) in annual income for 2014.

The poverty rate in the countryside, or the proportion of poor people in the total population, dropped to 7.2 percent in 2014, down from 97.5 percent in 1978.

Poverty reduction accelerated in the 2011-2014 period, with the proportion of the rural population below the poverty threshold decreasing by 95.5 million, or at an annual-average rate of 19.3 percent, the NBS said.