BEIJING — China had more than 1.71 million registered sailors by the end of 2020, up 3.5 percent year-on-year, the Ministry of Transport has said.

Approximately 258,000 of the sailors were women, the ministry said in a report.

Of the total, the number of seagoing crew members increased 3 percent year-on-year to approximately 808,000, while the number of inland river crew members increased 3.9 percent to approximately 908,000.

By the end of 2020, China had 592,998 registered international sailors, up 3 percent year-on-year, 39,702 of whom were women.

The ministry has been improving the training, examination and certification of sailors. Chinese colleges enrolled approximately 19,000 students majoring in navigation in 2020, up 1.6 percent year-on-year.