BEIJING — The proportion of China's rural population has been reduced by nearly 50 percent since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The proportion of the country's rural population was 89.36 percent in 1949, which was reduced to 40.42 percent in 2018, according to the bureau.

"A large number of the rural labor force have been transferred to nonagricultural sectors, which not only promotes rapid and sustainable development of national economy but raises the level of agricultural modernization and the living standard of the rural population," said Cheng Guoqiang, a professor of Tongji University.

China's Ministry of Finance has allocated 30 billion yuan (about $4.18 billion) to help rural people settle in cities in the latest urbanization push.