'Population Will Decline As HK Women Move Out'

The secretary for labour and welfare, Law Chi-kwong, is warning that Hong Kong's population could begin to decline sooner than expected, as more local women start families on the mainland.

Writing on his official blog, Law said a growing proportion of cross-border marriages involved women from the SAR and mainland men. In such cases, the couple tended to move to start a family on the mainland – unlike in cases where Hong Kong men married mainland women.

He also said that new policies from the mainland authorities were making it easier for Hong Kong people to move across the border.

Law said this was likely to mean a reduction in the number of applications for one-way permits, under which people from the mainland can apply for permission to move to Hong Kong, usually for family reunion purposes. A quota of 150 such permits, issued by mainland authorities, is available each day.

The most-recent official figures, from 2017, show that about 14,000 Hong Kong men married mainland women. About half that number of local women married mainland men in the same year.

In a 2017 projection, the Census and Statistics Department predicted that Hong Kong's population would peak at 8.22 million in 2043, and then begin to decline. Some 7.34 million people lived in the SAR as of mid-2016.

Officials have warned that low birth rates and increased longevity will mean Hong Kong has fewer working-age people to support a growing number of elderly residents.