College-educated Chinese more than doubled on the Chinese mainland over the past decade, according to census data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday.

College-educated Chinese expanded to 8,930 among every 100,000 people in 2010 from the figure of 3,611 in the previous 2000 census, according to the data.

About 119.6368 million Chinese on the mainland had college education, the data shows.

Some 4.08 percent of Chinese on the mainland are illiterate, down 2.64 percentage points from the 2000 figure.

Those who received their highest level of education at senior high school topped 187.9860 million, or 14,032 per 100,000 people in 2010, up from 11,146 per 100,000 people 10 years before.

Those who received their highest level of education at junior high school education rose to 519.6564 million, or 38,788 per 100,000 people in 2010, up from 33,961 per 100,000 people in 2000.

Meanwhile, people with only primary school education stood at 358.7640 million, or 26,779 per 10,000 people in 2010, down from 35,701 ten years before.