According to the statistics released by the Census and Statistics Department today (February 18), the provisional estimate of the Hong Kong population was 7 500 700 at end-2019, representing an increase of 14 200 or 0.2% from 7 486 400 at end-2018 (Table 1).
Population increase comprises natural increase (i.e. births less deaths) and net movement of Hong Kong residents (i.e. inflow less outflow). The natural increase of the population from end-2018 to end-2019 amounted to 4 300, with 52 900 births and 48 500 deaths. Over the same period, there was a net movement of 9 900 persons, of which 39 100 were inflow of One-way Permit holders and 29 200 were net outflow of other Hong Kong residents.
The Hong Kong population is measured on the definition of Resident Population, which comprises Usual Residents and Mobile Residents. Among the total population at end-2019, 7 303 500 (provisional) were Usual Residents and 197 200 (provisional) were Mobile Residents.
"Usual Residents" refer to two categories of people: (1) Hong Kong Permanent Residents who have stayed in Hong Kong for at least three months during the six months before or for at least three months during the six months after the reference time-point, regardless of whether they are in Hong Kong or not at the reference time-point; and (2) Hong Kong Non-permanent Residents who are in Hong Kong at the reference time-point.
For those Hong Kong Permanent Residents who are not "Usual Residents", they are classified as "Mobile Residents" if they have stayed in Hong Kong for at least one month but less than three months during the six months before or for at least one month but less than three months during the six months after the reference time-point, regardless of whether they are in Hong Kong or not at the reference time-point.
The revised figure for the mid-year population for 2019 was 7 507 400. The number of Usual Residents was revised to 7 311 400 and the number of Mobile Residents to 196 000. The population growth rate from mid-2018 to mid-2019 was also revised to 0.8%.
The population figures for recent years are shown in Table 2.
Under the current practice, the latest population figure is released on a provisional basis in each round. The revised figure will be released six months later. In other words, while the provisional population figure for end-2019 is released today, the corresponding revised figure will be released in August 2020.
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