Membership in the Communist Party of China (CPC) surpassed 96 million by the end of 2021, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee announced on Wednesday.

The CPC has nearly 5 million grassroots organizations. Among them, there are about 278,000 grassroots Party committees, 316,000 general branches and over 4.3 million branches, the department said in a report ahead of the 101st founding anniversary of the CPC on July 1.

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The leading force of Party organizations at the village and community levels has also been improved, featuring a rising proportion of Party secretaries aged 35 and below and those with junior college degrees or above, according to the report.

The composition of Party membership has continuously improved with better levels of education and steady growth in the proportion of female members and those from ethnic minority groups. 

More than half of CPC members, 53.2 percent, hold a junior college degree or higher. The number of female Party members grew from 21 million in 2013 to 28 million, accounting for 29.4 percent of the total membership. Members from ethnic minorities have also increased from less than 6 million to over 7 million, accounting for 7.5 percent.

Workers and farmers continue to make up the majority of the CPC members, accounting for 33.6 percent of the total membership, data from the report showed.