The number of babies born in Hong Kong plunged to a record low of 31,100 in 2025, while the city’s provisional population estimate rose 0.1 per cent year on year to 7.51 million.
The Census and Statistics Department on Thursday also revealed a net inflow of 29,100 Hong Kong residents in 2025. Some 50,000 deaths were recorded in the year.
The figures revealed the decline in Hong Kong’s birth rate to be much worse than previously estimated by the government.
A government spokesman did not address the low birth rate, but attributed the increase in overall population to various measures, including talent attraction and labour importation schemes, that “brought people into Hong Kong from other places around the world to offset the impact of natural population decrease”.
In 2023, local authorities launched a “baby bonus” scheme, offering a one-off HK$20,000 (US$2,560) cash award to new parents to encourage families to have children. The scheme was planned for an initial three years.
Authorities earlier estimated that the annual number of births in the second and third financial years, 2024-25 and 2025-26, of the scheme could reach 39,000 per year – a 20 per cent jump from 2022.
