Hong Kong experiences ‘alarming’ population drop, but government says not all 90,000 leaving city because of national security law
- Number of people in city now estimated to be 7.39 million, a 1.2 per cent drop in a year
- Social administration expert Professor Paul Yip says officials should try and address the concerns of those going elsewhere
The decline to 7.39 million people is the biggest since the local population saw the first signs of a decreasing trend in the middle of 2020, by 0.3 per cent year on year.
Before that there had always been steady growth since mid-2003, with an increase rate ranging from 0.2 to 1.1 per cent leading to a population of 7.5 million by the middle of last year.
A government spokesman said the number of residents leaving Hong Kong was “conceptually different” from emigration, as some might be going for work or study.
But Paul Yip Siu-fai, chair professor in social work and social administration at the University of Hong Kong, called the trend “alarming”, and said part of the decline was because of a sharp increase in net migration, on top of a low birth rate.
“Of course many people could be leaving Hong Kong to work and study, every year there are people doing so. But what is the reason that this year saw such an increase [from 20,900 to 89,200], the government needs to find out,” said Yip, adding authorities should also look into how emigration would affect the city’s long-term population changes.
