Hong Kong: The Facts

 

Population: 6.975 million (as at end-1999)

Hong Kong Island
1.41 million
20.6%
Kowloon
2.12 million
31.0%
New Territories
3.29 million
48.2%
Marine
0.01 million
0.2%
(As at July 1, 1999)

Overall density
6 480 people per square kilometre.
Kwun Tong District has 55 020 people per square kilometre.

Housing
3.3 million people live in public housing, which includes 994 000 flats. In 1999, Hong Kong had 2.07 million domestic households, 47.5% occupied by the owners, 48.0% by tenants, and 4.4% either rent-free or provided by employers.


Age structure
Median age: 36.2 Under 15: 16.9% Over 64: 10.7%

Sex ratio
Overall: 1 012 males per 1 000 females
Under 15: 1 073 Over 64: 855

Crude birth rate       Crude death rate
7.5# per 1 000 popn   4.8# per 1 000 popn

Expectation of life at birth
Male 77.2# Female 82.6#

Nationalities
Predominantly of Chinese descent  
95%
Total foreign passport-holders (end-1999):  
495 200

Largest groups
Philippines  
136 100
Indonesia  
53 400
USA  
35 100
Canada  
33 400
Thailand  
27 300
UK  
22 300
India  
22 000
Australia  
21 800
Japan  
17 600
Nepal  
17 700
Sub-total  
386 700

Religion and Custom
Buddhists and Taoists make up the vast majority. Christians 527 000; Muslims 80 000; Hindus 12 000;
Sikhs 1 200; Jews 1 000.

 

Area: 1 098 square km
     
Hong Kong Island
80
square km
Kowloon
47
square km
New Territories
796
 square km
Outlying Islands
175
square km
Reclamation since 1887
62
square km



Weather

Average annual rainfall
2 214.3 mm

Wettest period
Hourly
109.9 mm
(May 8, 1992)
daily
534.1 mm
(July 19,1926)
monthly
1 241.1 mm
(May 1889)

Driest
10% humidity (January 16, 1959)

Highest temperature
36.1°C (August 19, 1900 and August 18, 1990)

Lowest temperature
0.0°C (January 18, 1893)

Highest wind speed
259 km/h at HK Observatory, 284 km/h at Tate's Cairn (Typhoon Wanda, September 1, 1962)

 


Transport

Roads
The 1 885 km of roads carry 503 974 licensed vehicles, or about 267 vehicles per kilometre.

Bridges
Longest: Tsing Ma suspension bridge (main span 1 377 metres) and the cable-stayed Ting Kau Bridge (two main spans totalling 923 metres)

Air movements
1999 — 167 369# flights; 29.06# million passengers; 1.97# million tonnes of freight

Shipping movements
1999 — 37 580 ocean vessel arrivals; 37 680 departures;
port cargo throughput 168.84 million tonnes

Container throughput
16.2 million TEUs.

 

Employment
Total number employed: 3.26 million in 1999

Major Employment sectors (Third quarter of 1999)

Wholesale, retail and import/export trades, restaurants and hotels
1 043 000
32% of workforce
Finance, insurance, real estate and business services 468 800
14% of workforce
Community, social and personal services 765 400
24% of workforce
Transport storage and communications 373 600
12% of workforce

Unemployment rate 6.2%
Average wages
(All selected industries)		 $11,407 per month

# provisional figure