BEIJING — The fourth national economic census showed China had 15.61 million private firms at the end of 2018, up 178.6 percent from the end of 2013.

About 84.1 percent of the enterprises were private ones at the end of 2018, up from 68.3 percent five years earlier, according to a report on the fourth economic census released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Nov 27.

The number of State-controlled enterprises stood at about 242,000 at the end of 2018, up 10.9 percent from the end of 2013, according to the report.

State-controlled enterprises are still crucial for the national economy. They accounted for only 1.3 percent of total enterprises, while their employees made up 15.7 percent of total enterprise employees at the end of last year, according to the report.

The tertiary industry became more important in the past five years with 17.16 million of legal entities at the end of 2018. They took 78.8 percent of the total legal entities, up 4.1 percentage points from the end of 2013.

The number of employees in the tertiary industry was 210.68 million, accounting for 55 percent of the total employees, and the ratio was 9.1 percentage points higher from the end of 2013, the report said.

Emerging industries saw a rapid expansion of firms in the past five years.