Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members as a share of the Chinese population 2013-2023
As of December 2023, around 7.04 percent of the Chinese population were members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The share of CCP members in the population has increased steadily over the years. The total number of memberships reached about 99.19 million in December 2023.
The Communist Party in China
The Chinese Communist Party is the sole governing party in China. It has been in power since the foundation of the People's Republic in 1949. The number of its members increased gradually from about 4.5 million in 1949, representing roughly 0.8 percent of the population, to 93.3 million, or around 6.6 percent of the population in 2020. Membership of the party is popular, but selection is strict and the application process can take up to several years, with no guarantee of success. As a party of the workers and peasants, people working as farmers, fishermen, and industrial laborers are still well represented among the ranks of party comrades, accounting for around 26 percent of all members in 2023. The share of women among the ordinary members has been growing in recent years and reached around 30 percent in 2023.
Non-communist parties in China
Besides the CCP, eight legal parties exist in China, which formally take part in the political process by building a “United Front” with the CCP. These parties must accept the leading role of the CCP and are not comparable to opposition parties in open democracies. Of these eight political parties, the China Democratic League, which was established in 1941, has the largest number of members, surpassing 340,000 in 2023. The youngest of the officially accepted parties was established in 1948, and several parties founded since were soon banned by the CCP.