Hong Kong’s population edges up 0.3% but births fall below 30,000 for first time

Hong Kong’s population rose slightly by 0.3 per cent year on year to more than 7.5 million by mid-2026 but the number of babies born fell by 15.6 per cent to below 30,000 for the first time on record, despite government incentives to boost the birth rate.The government on Tuesday attributed the slight population increase to “various measures for talent attraction and labour importation” that continued to bring people from around the world to Hong Kong, which offset the impact of population-decline" class="entity-link entity-topic" data-entity-id="187753" data-entity-type="topic">natural population decline.But the statement did not address the steep drop in births.