The Communist Party’s growth rate is now only 1 percent.Image: www.imago-images.de
June 30, 2026, 7:18 amJune 30, 2026, 7:18 am
Despite ongoing anti-corruption campaigns, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has again grown by hundreds of thousands of members. As of December 31, 2025, the CCP said it had almost 101.29 million members, 1.01 million more than in 2024.
However, as the party announced a day before the 105th anniversary of its founding, the growth rate was only 1 percent, which is the lowest value in the past 5 years. In 2021 the growth rate was 3.7 percent.
Party is getting older and more female
The sole ruling party in the country of around 1.4 billion people is one of the largest and most powerful in the world. Membership is sometimes considered advantageous for careers in state-owned companies or at universities. The new data also showed that the proportion of women increased slightly to 31.5 percent and almost 6 out of 10 members have a university degree.
At the same time, the CCP reflects the aging trend in society as a whole: at 29.5 percent, the age group of people over 61 was the largest, while the number of people under 30 shrank slightly compared to the previous year.
Corruption continues to be a problem
But there have been rumblings in the party for several years. Since 2012, state and party leader Xi Jinping has been pushing forward a strict anti-corruption campaign that has also targeted the highest party cadres. Last year, according to official figures, almost a million party members received disciplinary or administrative punishments. (sda/dpa)