According to a report from the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), China had a total of 101 million sci-tech individuals by the end of 2018. Participation in higher education rose from 40 percent in 2015 to 51.6 percent in 2019, and nearly half of high school students chose science, engineering, agronomy, or medicine as their undergraduate majors. More than ¾ of China’s sci-tech personnel were younger than 39 years in 2018, and women accounted for over 50 % of new sci-tech professionals at the postgraduate level.
Xinhua news release, October 20, 2020