BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) had 69.6 million members at the end of 2004, a net growth of 1.37 million over the previous year, the latest CPC statistics show.

    Among them, there were 12.96 million female members, making up 18.6 percent of the total; there were 4.41 million members from minority ethnic groups, accounting for 6.3 percent of the total, according to statistics of the Organization Department of CPC Central Committee.

    CPC members that had received senior high school education or above accounted for 56.6 percent of the entire team. CPC members that had received college education or above accounted for 27.3 percent of the team.

    The statistics also indicate that the party admitted 2.42 million new members in 2004, including 894 private businessmen.

    A total of 17.38 million people submitted applications to join the CPC in 2004, up 8.5 percent over the previous year, says an official with the department. Enditem