Ministry of Science and Technology of China issued the 2017 National Science Popularization Statistics. As shown by statistics, good outcomes have been made in terms of implementation of the Law on Science Popularization, 13th National Five-year STI Plan, 13th Five-year Plan on Science Popularization and Innovative Culture Development, relevant knowledge about China's Civic Scientific Literacy Benchmark has been popularized. Civic scientific literacy has been markedly improved and public interest for S&T activities has been greatly aroused. A sound development momentum of science popularization is across the country.

 

1. Expenditure for science popularization increases steadily

In 2017, a total of 16.005 billion yuan has been raised for science popularization, a year-on-year increase of 5.32%. The government allocated 12.296 billion yuan, 76.82% of the total funding. For the construction of science popularization venues, 3.741 billion yuan has been allocated, 10.54% higher than 2016.

 

2. Science popularization facilities boom and visitors keeps increasing

There are a total of 1,439 science popularization venues in the country, 46 more than the year 2016. Among them, 488 were S&T venues and 951 were science museums, up by 15 and 31 respectively compared with the year of 2016. 63 million people visited the S&T venues, a year-on-year increase of 11.61%. 142 million people visited the science museums, a year-on-year increase of 28.85%.

 

3. Full-time staffs increase and docents play a greater role

In 2017 there were 227,000 full-time staffs for science popularization in the country, 3,500 persons more than the year of 2016. Among them, 31,200 were full-time docents, 13.74% of the total full-time staffs. 2,300 docents increased more than the year of 2016. MOST has for many years organized national competition for illustration of science popularization, which highlighted the important role of full-time docents. 14,900 writers work for science popularization, 800 writers more than the year of 2016. There were 1.5675 million part-time staffs for science popularization.

 

4. Research facilities and resources are more open to the public

An increasingly large number of research institutes and universities have opened to the society through organizing science popularization activities, and become an important component of China's resources in science popularization. In 2017, the research institutes and universities opened themselves to the society. 8,461 such entities held science popularization activities, a year-on-year increase of 381. There were 8.7865 million visitors, a year-on-year increase of 1.77%.

 

5. Science popularization activities are conducted extensively  

The science popularization activities in the science week, etc. have produced extensive social effect. In 2017, 771 million people attended various activities, an increase of 6.30% compared with the year 2016. 146 million audience were attracted to attend 880,100 lectures. 101 million participants were involved in 48,900 competitions. 702,100 people took part in 2,713 international exchange activities.

 

6. Ways of dissemination become increasingly diverse

A total of 112 million science popularization books of 14,100 kinds have been published nationwide, accounting for 1.21% of total publication in 2017. A total of 491 million S&T newspapers have been published, 89,700 hours of programs have been broadcast through TV and 73,700 hours of those through radio. In 2,570 science popularization websites, there were 1.3671 million articles of all kinds, 49,700 videos and a total of 921 million visitors. In 2,065 Weibo accounts, 664,500 articles of all kinds had 4.409 billion pageviews. In the 5,488 WeChat official accounts concerning science popularization, the 874,900 articles of all kinds had 694 million pageviews.