Hong Kong
- Capital:
- City of Victoria
- Continent:
- Asia
- Region(s):
- Eastern Asia
- Abbreviation:
- HKG
* As of 6/9/2025
1 birth
Every 13.5 minutes
1 death
Every 9.1 minutes
1 immigrant
Every 29.4 minutes
1 person
Every 8.0 hours
Hong Kong is one of the two Special Administrative regions of China, with Macau being the other one. It is located on the south coast of China with the Pearl River Delta and the South China Sea surrounding it. Hong Kong is famous for its skyline as well as its natural harbor.
93.6% of Hong Kong’s population consists of ethnic Chinese. Most are Taishanese, Chiu Chow, other Cantonese people, and Hakka. Most Han people in Hong Kong are from the Taishan and Guangzhou regions. Of the non-ethnic Chinese in Hong Kong, many are South Asians — including Indians, Nepalese, and Pakistanis — as well as Vietnamese refugees. There are also many Canadians, Britons, Americans, Koreans, and Japanese working in the city.
Foreign domestic helpers make up 4% of Hong Kong’s population. The estimated 250,000 foreign domestic workers mostly come from the Philippines and Indonesia.
The languages used in Hong Kong include: Cantonese (official language) 88.9%, English (official language) 4.3%, Mandarin (official language) 1.9%, other Chinese dialects 3.1%, and other languages at 1.9% use among the population.
Most people in Hong Kong have no religious affiliation, claiming to be atheist or agnostic. Just 43% of the population practices some religion, although it’s estimated that up to 80% of Hong Kong residents have no religion. The main religions include Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. Christians account for 11% of the population, most of whom are Protestant.
Hong Kong had the longest life expectancy in the world for women, which was recorded as 86.70 years in 2011. Meanwhile, the life expectancy for men was recorded at 80 years. There are several reasons for these statistics, such as residents of Hong Kong generally having an upbeat personality as well as the affordable and accessible health services provider there. In addition, financial stability is a major factor for long life expectancies there as this allows a person to remain calm instead of stressing out, which can take years off of a person’s life. Most residents of Hong Kong follow a healthy diet, combined with regular exercise which helps combat the effects of aging overall in addition to building a general foundation of good health.
When the British forces formally took over Hong Kong in 1841, the population was 7,541. A century later, the figure officially stood at 1,600,000. This figure fell to 500,000 in 1945, following the Battle of Hong Kong. However, ever since then, the population has steadily increased culminating in its current figure.
Large numbers of Chinese immigrated to Hong Kong in the 1850s due to the Taiping Rebellion. Several natural disasters such as floods, typhoons and famine led to many people moving to Hong Kong to escape the disasters. Despite 60,000 Chinese leaving Hong Kong in 1914 due to a fear of attack on their colony, the population increased to 530,000 in 1916 to 725,000 in 1925 to 1.6 million in 1941.
Hong Kong’s population in 1950 was 2.2 million. By 2001, it increased to 6.7 million, which means the population increased more than 3 times in size. However, the rate of the growth of population has been in decline over the years. This means that over the past fifty years, Hong Kong has transitioned from a high growth phase to a low growth phase.