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Summary Results of 2011 Population Census announced (with photo/video)
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     According to the results of the 2011 Population Census, the Hong Kong population, as measured by the definition of Resident Population, was 7 071 576 in end-June 2011.  Of the total, 6 859 341 were Usual Residents and 212 235 were Mobile Residents.

     Announcing the Summary Results of the 2011 Population Census at a press conference today (February 21), the Commissioner for Census and Statistics, Mrs Lily Ou-yang, said that the ageing trend in the population continued during the past ten years, which is attributable to the continuously low level of fertility rate and mortality rate experienced by the population.  The median age rose from 36.7 in 2001 to 39.6 in 2006 and further to 41.7 in 2011.

     The sex ratio has fallen below parity.  From 960 males per 1 000 females in 2001, the sex ratio dropped to 876 in 2011.  The corresponding sex ratios after excluding foreign domestic helpers were 1 012 and 939.

     As regards marital status, 28.1% of the male population aged 20 and over were never married in 2011, slightly higher than 27.8% in 2001.  The proportion for female also increased from 24.4% in 2001 to 25.4% in 2011.

     The effect of age structure has to be taken into account in analysing nuptiality.  Despite a little change in the overall figure, it is noted that the proportions of never married for male and female in the prime marriageable ages (i.e. those aged 20 - 49) increased significantly from 39.3% and 34.0% in 2001 to 46.8% and 38.9% in 2011 respectively.  But the increases were found to have moderated in the recent five years.

     About 93.6% of the population was of Chinese ethnicity.  The two largest non-Chinese ethnic groups in Hong Kong were Indonesian and Filipino, each representing about 1.9% of the population.  Most of them were foreign domestic helpers.

     Cantonese was the most commonly spoken language at home for about 89.5% of the population aged 5 and over.  Another 6.3% claimed that they could speak the dialect.  While only 1.4% of the population spoke Putonghua as the usual language in 2011, slightly higher than the 0.9% in 2001, about 46.5% of the population claimed to be able to speak the language in 2011, representing an increase of about 13.2 percentage points when compared to 2001.

     The educational level of the population has generally improved.  The proportion of population aged 15 and over with secondary or higher education increased from 71.1% in 2001 to 74.6 % in 2006 and further to 77.3% in 2011.  Likewise, the proportion of those with post-secondary education in degree courses also increased significantly from 12.7% in 2001 to 15.4% and 18.0% in 2006 and 2011 respectively.

     Among persons attending full-time courses in educational institutions in Hong Kong, 56.6% were studying in the same area as that of their place of residence.  About 29.1% walked to their place of study.  For persons studying in another district, a significant proportion of them lived in the new towns.

     The labour force increased from 3 437 992 persons in 2001 to 3 727 407 persons in 2011, despite a drop in the overall labour force participation rate from 61.4% to 59.7% over the same period.  This was mainly attributable to the increase in population size and the changes in the age-sex structure of the population.

     The median monthly income from main employment of the working population was $11,000 in 2011, representing an increase of 10% over the past ten years.

     In 2011, about 36.2% of the working population were managers, administrators, professionals and associate professionals, up from 31.6% in 2001.  In contrast, the proportion of working population engaged as craft and related workers dropped from 9.9% in 2001 to 7.4% in 2011.

     "Import/export, wholesale and retail trades" was the largest economic sector, employing about 22.7% of the working population.  This was followed by "Public administration, education, human health and social work activities" which employed 14.5% of the working population.

     Over the last decade, the number of domestic households increased by 15.4% from 2 053 412 to 2 368 796.  As the rate of increase was faster than that of the population, the average household size decreased from 3.1 to 2.9.

     Mrs Ou-yang said, "There were more domestic households which comprised a couple only or a lone parent with unmarried children over the past decade.  Their proportions increased from 13.2% and 9.9% in 2001 to 15.0% and 11.9% in 2011 respectively.  The share of one-person households also increased from 15.6% to 17.1% over the period.  In contrast, the proportion of domestic households which comprised a couple with unmarried children decreased from 43.1% in 2001 to 39.4% in 2011.

     "The composition of domestic households has changed along with the ageing of the population and the marriage and other demographic trends," she added.

     The median monthly income of domestic households was $20,500, an increase of 9.6% over that ten years ago.

     3 640 206 persons lived in private permanent housing, another 2 092 638 persons in public rental housing and 1 205 391 persons in subsidised home ownership housing.  There were 1 233 595 households which owned and occupied their quarters.  Amongst these households, 60.1% did not incur any mortgage payment or loan repayment.  Owner-occupiers with mortgage payment or loan repayment incurred a median monthly payment of $7,000 with the median mortgage payment and loan repayment to income ratio at 19.6%.  For those living in private permanent housing, the median monthly mortgage payment and loan repayment and its median ratio to income were $8,000 and 20.0% respectively.

     Domestic rental households recorded a median monthly rent of $1,600.  The relatively low rent level was due to the fact that a majority of them lived in public rental housing units.  Those living in private residential flats (i.e. flats and apartments in multi-storey residential buildings) recorded a median monthly rent of $7,500 or 25.7% of their income on average (as measured by the median rent to income ratio).

     The trend in redistribution of the population continued during the last decade.  While ten years ago, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories had respectively 19.9%, 30.2% and 49.8% of the population, by now the respective proportions were 18.0%, 29.8% and 52.2%.

     "Many districts in the New Territories like Islands District, Sai Kung District and Yuen Long District recorded a marked population growth because of new towns development during the past decade, whereas districts like Wan Chai District, Wong Tai Sin District and Eastern District experienced a decline in the population," Mrs Ou-yang said.

     Among the District Council districts, Islands District had the highest proportion of young people aged below 15 in its population.  Its median age of 39.1 was second lowest amongst all districts, just higher than that of 38.6 in Yuen Long District.  On the other hand, Wong Tai Sin District had the highest proportion of people aged 65 and over with the highest median age of 44.5 among all districts.

     Sai Kung District had the highest labour force participation rates for both male and female.  The lowest labour force participation rates were recorded in Sham Shui Po District for male and Wong Tai Sin District for female respectively.

     Other summary findings of the 2011 Population Census are published in the report "2011 Population Census Summary Results" and the leaflet "2011 Population Census Key Statistics" which are available today and can be downloaded free of charge from the website of the Census and Statistics Department.

     "The results of population censuses/by-censuses are widely used by the Government in planning and policy formulation, particularly in areas such as education, housing, transport, medical and social services.  The business community and members of the public also find such data useful for various purposes," Mrs Ou-yang said.

     At the press conference, Mrs Ou-yang thanked all households in Hong Kong for their kind support and co-operation to the 2011 Population Census. "More than half of the households provided data through the self-enumeration modes, either by returning the postal questionnaires or completing the e-Questionnaires.  This was indeed very encouraging." she highlighted.

     Detailed results of the 2011 Population Census will be released in the coming stages subsequently later this year.  

Ends/Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Issued at HKT 15:46

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