BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) has 95.148 million members as of June 5, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee announced on Wednesday.

Membership was 3.5 percent up from the figure reported at the end of 2019, and approximately 20 times more than the figure in 1949 when the People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded, the department said in a report ahead of the CPC's centenary on July 1.

In 1921 when it was founded, the CPC had more than 50 members.

About 2.31 million people joined the CPC in the first half of this year, the statement added.

"The continuous increase of members has shown the strong vitality of the Party and the prosperity of the Party's cause," the statement said.

The number of primary-level Party organizations has increased from 195,000 when the PRC was founded to 4.86 million, an increase of about 24 times, according to the statement.

OPTIMIZED COMPOSITION

The composition of Party membership has continuously improved, featuring a rising number of young members, higher education level, and steady growth in the proportion of female members and those from ethnic minority groups, according to the report.

Nearly 23.68 million Party members, or 24.9 percent of the total membership, were aged 35 or younger, 0.7 percentage point higher than the rate at the end of 2019, with 52 percent of the Party members holding junior college degrees or above.

As of June 5, the CPC had 27.45 million female members, accounting for 28.8 percent of the total membership, compared with merely 11.9 percent in the early days of New China. Meanwhile, the proportion of members from ethnic minority groups has grown from 2.5 percent to 7.5 percent.

The total number of Party members from ethnic minority groups has reached 7.135 million, with each of the 55 ethnic minority groups in China having a certain number of Party members.

Workers and peasants remain the majority of the CPC members, accounting for 33.9 percent of the total membership, with their total number currently 11.6 times the figure in 1949, data from the report shows.

Among the CPC members, 10.61 million are management personnel in enterprises, public institutions and social organizations, while 15 million are professional and technical personnel, making up 11.2 percent and 15.8 percent of the total respectively.

All the neighborhood offices in urban areas, townships, communities and administrative villages have established primary-level Party organizations, according to the report.

The crucial role of local Party organizations and the exemplary role of Party members have been given full play, the statement noted.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in late 2012, a total of 255,000 resident work teams have been sent to impoverished villages and more than 3 million people have been dispatched to serve as first secretaries and village officials to boost poverty eradication efforts on the front lines.

More than 3.3 million primary-level Party organizations and 39 million Party members have been mobilized to assist the fight against COVID-19.

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