BEIJING, Dec. 16 -- China has more enterprises in the service sector, marking improvement in its economic structure under the "new normal", the latest official data showed on Tuesday.

The number of companies in the service sector was nearly triple that of the secondary industry by the end of 2013, according to results of the latest national economic census published by the National Bureau of Statistics.

There were 10.86 million enterprises engaged in the two industries by the end of last year, up 52.9 percent from 2008, the census showed.

China launched the third national economic census in 2013, covering the secondary and tertiary industries. The first two economic censuses were conducted in 2004 and 2008 respectively.