CPC membership increased by 688,000 from 2015, up 0.8 percent. Grassroots Party units increased by 105,000 to 4.518 million, up 2.4 percent, the department said in a communique published ahead of the 96th anniversary of CPC's founding on July 1.

Statistics showed the Party's vigor and vitality have been strengthened, the communique said.

The growth rate of CPC membership has dropped while the structure of its members has improved since 2013 when the Party implemented a recruitment rule which stresses the quality of members while limiting the quantity.

In 2016, the CPC recruited 1.911 million new members, 54,000 less than 2015, including 953,000 members working in frontline production roles, accounting for 49.9 percent of all new members.

A total of 1.571 million new members were under the age of 35, accounting for 82.2 percent of all new members in 2016, up 0.4 percentage points from 2015.

Among those new members, 785,000 hold junior college degrees or above, accounting for 41.1 percent, up 1.5 percentage points from 2015, the communique said.

The Party had 22.982 million female members at the end 2016, accounting for 25.7 percent of the total membership, while 6.3 million members are from ethnic minority groups, making up 7 percent of total membership.