A volunteer social worker gives a lecture on avoiding sexual assault to children in Suichuan county, Jiangxi province. (Photo: China Daily)

BEIJING, July 29 (Xinhua) -- The number of registered volunteers in China has reached 172 million, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs Wednesday.

A total of 735,000 volunteer organizations have been registered in the country, said Jia Weizhou, a ministry spokesperson.

The volunteers have rendered more than 2.22 billion hours of service in total, Jia added.