BEIJING - The Communist Party of China (CPC) has elected more young delegates and grassroots-level delegates to attend its upcoming national congress, a senior Party official said here Tuesday.

About 30.5 percent of the delegates elected to attend the upcoming 18th CPC National Congress are from the grassroots level, up 2.1 percent from the previous congress in 2007, said Wang Jingqing, deputy head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, at a press conference here.

Party members who joined the CPC after the reform and opening-up in the late 1970s constitute the majority of delegates, Wang said.

A total of 1,640 delegates joined the Party after November 1976, accounting for 72.2 percent of the total, 20.5 percentage points higher than that of the congress in 2007, he said.

The average age of the delegates is 52, and 64.8 percent of the delegates are under age 55, Wang said.

There are 114 delegates under 35, accounting for 5 percent of the total, 1.9 percentage points higher than the previous congress.

Among all the delegates to the congress, the number of workers saw a sharp increase, from 51 in the 17th congress to the current 169, including 26 migrant workers.

Female delegates account for 23 percent of the total and ethnic minorities account for 11 percent.

According to established practices, the CPC Central Committee will also invite some Party members who have retired from their leadership posts as special delegates to the congress, Wang said.

The 2,270 delegates, elected by 40 electoral units, will represent more than 82 million CPC members in attending the 18th CPC National Congress, which is scheduled to be held in the second half of this year in Beijing.