Chinese ruling Communist Party membership crosses 100 million mark: Report

China's ruling Communist Party's membership has crossed the 100 million mark, a report said on Monday.

The CPC, founded in 1921, had more than 100.27 million members at the end of 2024, up by nearly 1.09 million from 2023, the report released by the Central Organisation Department (COD) of the CPC said.

The CPC had 5.25 million primary-level organisations at the end of 2024, an increase of 74,000 compared with the previous year.

Headed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the CPC is one of the few Communist parties in power.

Vietnam, Laos, Cuba and North Korea are governed by the parties claiming ideological affiliation to Marxism and Socialism.

Analysts say the growth of the CPC membership was slow due to stricter screening by the COD, the party's top personnel office, the Hong Kong based South China Post reported. 

The membership data for the previous year was released a day ahead of the July 1 celebrations marking the party's founding.

While CPC membership is sought after for its political influence, the members are subjected to much tighter regulations, including membership fees of up to two per cent of their monthly pay, which goes into the party funds, and regular attendance at party meetings and basic organisational cell activities, the Post said.

By the end of 2024, there were 21.42 million applicants waiting in line, an increase of 440,000 applicants over 2023, according to the COD data.

The CPC had nearly 31 million female members, accounting for 30.9 per cent of its total membership, up 0.5 percentage points from the previous year, Xinhua reported.

The proportion of members from ethnic minority groups remained at 7.7 per cent. Workers and farmers accounted for about 33 per cent of all CPC members.