A ban on mainland women giving birth in Hong Kong will leave the city with fewer workers to take care of a rapidly ageing population in future, the latest projections from the Census and Statistics Department show.
Half of the city's population will be over the age of 50 by 2041, the projections show, and the population profile will be even older than in countries, such as Japan, already coping with the problems of ageing.
While he was still chief executive-elect, Leung Chun-ying announced in April that there would be a quota of 'zero' for mainland women to give birth in the city's hospitals from next year, with an exception for those women married to Hong Kong men.
The decision proved popular with Hongkongers, who fear the influx of mainland mothers will increase competition for health care and education, but the department says the ban, if extended for the next three decades, will leave the city with 330,000 fewer workers than it had previously expected.
'The decline in workforce, compared to the projection two years ago, is a result of the zero quota and the rising number of elderly [people],' the department's deputy commissioner Leslie Tang said yesterday. 'I do think the government should get prepared for the problem [of an ageing population].'
The previous projection put the workforce in 2039 at 5.47 million, from a population of 8.89 million. The figures released yesterday put the workforce in 2041 at 5.14 million, from a population of 8.47 million.