The number of registered market entities in China has increased by over 100 million in the past 10 years, reported China Media Group (CMG) on Monday.

As of August 2022, the number of market entities climbed to 163 million from 55 million at the end of 2012, with an average annual growth rate of 12 percent, said CMG, citing data from the State Administration for Market Regulation.

Of those, the number of enterprises increased from more than 13 million to over 51 million, which is close to the total number of enterprises in the U.S. and the European Union combined, it added.

Foreign-invested enterprises increased from 441,000 to 668,000, an increase of more than 50 percent.

Despite the effects of COVID-19, since 2020, the number of Chinese market entities has continued growing, with an increase of more than 37 million, accounting for 35 percent of the total increase in the past decade.

Since China implemented a reform focusing on simplifying the process of market entity registration in March 2014, China's global ranking in terms of its business environment has climbed from 96th to 31st. Additionally, the ranking in ease of starting a business rose from 150th to 27th.

As a result, China became one of the economies with the greatest improvement in the business environment in the world, according to CMG.