BEIJING, Oct. 31 -- China has released a report on its science popularization capacity, China Science Daily reported Thursday.

From 2006 to 2017, the country witnessed an 8.08 percent average growth rate of science popularization capacity development index, said the report, which also ranked the development degrees of science popularization in different regions.

The science popularization capacity development gap between the central-western and eastern regions have been narrowed, while the infrastructure construction still needs to be strengthened.

Digital science popularization industry, education of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and science popularization tourism has been the main power pushing forward the science popularization capacity, said the report.

Since 2016, China Research Institute for Science Popularization has conducted relevant research and made public national science popularization capacity development.