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NANNING, Dec. 9-- Home to the largest number of ethnic minorities in China, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region will soon mark its 60th anniversary. Here are the latest data about the region, which has seen rapid economic and social developments in recent decades. POPULATION & ETHNICITY Established in 1958 as an autonomous region, Guangxi has a population of 56 million, including over 20 million who identify as ethnic minorities. It tops in Chinese provincial-level regions in terms of minority population. The southern region is heavily inhabited by Zhuang, China's most populous ethnic minority that gave the region its name. Miao and Yao are also major ethnic groups that have inhabited the region since ancient times. Guangxi has taken pride in the harmonious coexistence of its ethnic communities over the past decades. Ethnic conflicts are rarely heard of. SHAKING OFF POVERTY Though bordering the wealthy Guangdong Province and boasting a coastline of 1,500 kilometers, Guangxi is a mountainous region and has long been plagued by poverty. It has been a major front in China's anti-poverty campaign that aims to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020. Latest government data show that more than 18 million rural residents in Guangxi have been lifted out of poverty in the past 40 years since China launched the reform and opening-up policy, cutting the rural poverty rate from 70 percent in 1978 to 5.7 percent at the end of 2017. | 
