More Hong Kong demographics

Some stats from a contributor here. A quarter of Hong Kong’s population is over 65. It’s amazing things are still ticking over.

Joel Chan at Numberwang goes into detail…

Looking back in time, the population has hovered around 7.5 million since 2018. 

…Readers of this blog might remember me saying there was an outside shot that births in 2026 would be below 30,000 for the first time since the Second World War … the odds of that occurring have increased.

…in the last 7½ years, the number of people in Hong Kong that are aged 61 or older have increased by 642,300, while the number of people in Hong Kong that are 60 or younger have decreased by 576,600. Hong Kong has a demographic crisis on its hands, but– as illustrated in its failed baby bonus scheme– the government is not taking the issue seriously. 

In fairness, no government has found a way to induce citizens to have more children. And Hong Kong is not an outlier: around a quarter to a third of Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese 30-somethings have never dated.

As everywhere in the developed world, more Hong Kong women want their own lives and careers, and don’t see marriage as appealing. People who do marry find the financial and opportunity costs of kids daunting. For many Hong Kong couples, memories of high-pressure schooling convince them that having a dog is less of a nightmare. Everywhere in the world, the next generation are so preoccupied with smartphones that they simply don’t socialize as much as people used to. In Hong Kong specifically, government policy is, in effect, to keep homes unaffordable and/or too small to decently accommodate a family. Even if you want more than one baby, there’s no space for it – keeping land valuations high is all that matters.

Although China has its own demographic problems, it can easily spare half a million or so underemployed younger people to top up Hong Kong’s dwindling supply of under-50s. And what better way to Mainlandize the city? In Japan, meanwhile, they are making immigration harder.