HK's population drops slightly by 0.1 percent
Hong Kong's population fell by 0.1 percent between mid-2023 and the middle of 2024, according to government estimates released on Thursday. Provisional figures by the Census and Statistics Department showed that the SAR's population slid from 7,536,100 in mid-2023, to 7,531,800 in mid-2024. Officials said the territory saw a net outflow of 30,200 residents, but 44,000 one-way permit holders came to the SAR, resulting in a net inflow of 13,800. A government spokesperson said the population saw a small increase in the first half of 2024 due to the introduction of various government policies. "Benefiting from various measures on talent attraction and labour importation, there was sizeable inflow of persons from the mainland and other places around the world to Hong Kong in the first half of 2024," the spokesperson said.   Paul Yip, a population expert from the University of Hong Kong, said authorities had to work on retaining talent. "It's important to make the people who decided to come to Hong Kong, stay in Hong Kong...I think we also have to diversify our portfolio. Not only from mainland China, we also like to attract, some foreign talent from other places too," he told RTHK. "In order to make Hong Kong to be a truly cosmopolitan city, I think we do need talent to come from different places, [like] the Belt and Road countries and also Europe or the US." Official figures showed that Hong Kong saw 34,400 births last year, a five percent increase from the previous year. A HK$20,000 handout for parents of newborn babies, along with other proposals to promote births, was announced in last year's Policy Address. Yip said the policies announced last October might not be reflected in the official data yet. "I think it would be very interesting to see whether there would be any substantial increase in 2024. But I think even if there is any impact, it will be quite limited," he said.