BEIJING — The number of people who participated in science popularization activities nationwide reached 892 million last year in China, a year-on-year growth of 15.8 percent, the Ministry of Science and Technology said on Dec 24.

About 16.1 billion yuan (about $2.3 billion) was raised in 2018 nationwide to popularize science, according to the latest data released by the ministry.

China has witnessed stable progress in science popularization, as well as increasingly active participation in popular science by ordinary people in 2018, said the ministry.

By the end of 2018, the country had 1,461 science and technology centers and museums that specialized in popularizing science, with a 5.14-percent increase in their total area compared to the previous year. On average, each popular science facility served 955,100 people, according to the data.