According to the statistics released by the Census and Statistics Department today (February 19), the provisional estimate of the Hong Kong population was 7 482 500 at end-2018, representing an increase of 69 400 or 0.9% from 7 413 100 at end-2017 (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-2017 to end-2018 amounted to 6 700, with 53 700 births and 47 000 deaths. Over the same period, there was a net movement of 62 700 persons, of which 42 300 were inflow of One-way Permit holders and 20 400 were net inflow 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-2018, 7 249 400 (provisional) were Usual Residents and 233 100 (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 2018 was 7 451 000. The number of Usual Residents was revised to 7 227 800 and the number of Mobile Residents to 223 200. The population growth rate from mid-2017 to mid-2018 remained at 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-2018 is released today, the corresponding revised figure will be released in August 2019.

Ends/Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Issued at HKT 16:30

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