A visitor tries a metaverse device at the China International Big Data Industry Expo 2024 in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Aug. 28, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's data sector has seen significant growth during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), with notable strides made in market size and digital infrastructure, official data showed Thursday.

The sector's scale reached 5.86 trillion yuan (about 821.45 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of 2024, up 117 percent from the end of 2020, Liu Liehong, head of the National Data Administration, told a press conference on Thursday.

He noted that the number of data-related enterprises in China had exceeded 400,000 by the end of 2024, and the sector is expected to maintain strong growth in the coming years.

Meanwhile, China's digital infrastructure has achieved significant progress, leading globally in scale and technological advancement.

According to Liu, by the end of June 2025, the country had built 4.55 million 5G base stations, and the number of gigabit broadband users had reached 226 million.

China's computational power now ranks second in the world, providing robust support for economic and social development, Liu said.