BEIJING - China's mobile phone shipments surged 22.1 percent year-on-year in December 2024 to nearly 34.53 million units, data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) showed Friday.

5G mobile phones accounted for 88.1 percent of the December shipments, totaling 30.43 million units, marking an increase of 25.8 percent year-on-year, said the CAICT, a research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

In 2024, total cellphone shipments grew by 8.7 percent year-on-year to 314 million units, of which 272 million units were 5G mobile phones, up 13.4 percent year-on-year, the CAICT data showed.

According to the data, 5G mobile phone shipments accounted for the lion's share of the cellphone market last year.

The number of 5G mobile phone users in China has surpassed 1 billion, with a population penetration rate exceeding 71 percent, and the number of 5G base stations has hit 4.25 million, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology data showed last month.