Per-capita funding of science promotion in China has risen by more than 50 percent in the last three years, according to a survey by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Per-capita funding rose to 1.84 yuan (0.27 US cents) last year, up by 0.66 yuan from that of 2006 when the last survey was conducted.

It said governments at various levels earmarked more than 2.44 billion yuan (US$357 million) in 2008 to finance science promotion, up almost 57 percent.

The country had about 1.76 million workers devoted to promoting science last year, up 8.5 percent from 2006, but still only 13 science promotion staff for every 10,000 Chinese, it said.

The survey showed China had more than 1,100 popular science venues such as science museums, each covering more than 500 square meters. They attracted more than 60 million visitors last year, up73 percent.

More than 160 million Chinese attended 950,000 science lectures, and 197 million people visited 115,000 technological exhibitions in 2008, it said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2009)