The number of new births in Hong Kong fell to a record low in 2021, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Monday, noting the figure dropped below 40,000 for the first time in 56 years.
Just 38,684 babies were born in Hong Kong last year, according to the SCMP. For comparison, 52,900 babies were born in the city in 2019 according to Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), which estimated the city’s number of births for 2021 more conservatively at 37,000.
Demographers told the SCMP on Monday Hong Kong’s low birth rate could cause “shrinking enrollment at every level of education, eventually affecting manpower supply in [the] future.”
Hong Kong’s plunging birth rate has already begun to impact the city’s early education sector, according to the SCMP. The local newspaper observed on Monday that seven Hong Kong kindergartens recently announced their permanent closing by the end of the current academic year.
Hong Kong recently recorded an increased proportion of people who have never married, suggesting its record-low birth rate last year may not increase in the near future.
“[T]he proportion of never-married people increased in the past decade, notably among men aged 30 to 34, from 50% to 58%, and women aged 25 to 29, from 71% to 80%,” RTHK reported on Monday citing data from Hong Kong’s latest census, which was taken between June and August 2021.
In this picture taken on March 31, 2020, expectant mother Jamie Chui, 33, browses toys in a shop in Hong Kong. (ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty)
“Given very low birth rates outside of marriage in Hong Kong, there is a strong link between the increased prevalence of spinsterhood and childlessness,” the United Nations observed in 2015.
Paul Yip, a population expert from the University of Hong Kong, told RTHK on February 28 the city’s “marriage figures and … drop in births are concerning, especially because there has been an increase of seven percentage points in the past decade of people aged 65 and above, and they now account for 20 percent of the population.”
“The rate of increase is quite drastic. If we do not have sufficient replacement of workforce, that would become a problem. If we have more and more elderly people, Hong Kong – with people living longer not healthier – the burden on medical and healthcare will increase,” Yip predicted.
A pregnant woman wearing a face mask as a precautionary measure walks past a street mural in Hong Kong, on March 23, 2020, after the city’s Chief Executive announced plans to temporarily ban the sale of alcohol in bars and restaurants as a measure to help stop the spread of the COVID-19. A(NTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images)
Hong Kong’s population is not only aging but also shrinking overall, indicating the city is on track toward a possible demographic crisis in the near future.
“Hong Kong’s population dropped by 23,600 or 0.3 percent, to 7,403,100 last year, partly due to a net outflow of 27,300 residents,” municipal government officials announced on February 28.
Hong Kong recorded 51,200 deaths in 2021. This figure was balanced by the entry of 17,900 people who applied for one-way travel permits from China to the city.
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