HK baby boom takes off as the economy slides
A clearer picture is emerging of what some people were up to late last year, at the height of the global financial turmoil. And it wasn't job hunting.
The delivery of several hundred more babies in July, August and September from a year ago indicates that more couples were busy in the bedroom as stock markets crashed, banks failed and companies folded at the end of last year.
Data compiled by the Immigration Department points to evidence of a baby boom this year despite the recession. The number of babies born has grown in recent years, from 65,626 in 2006 to 70,875 in 2007 and 78,822 last year. This is the largest number since 1983, when about 83,300 babies were born.
Although the recent rise is skewed by increasing numbers of mainland women giving birth in Hong Kong, excluding these births still makes last year the busiest year for maternity wards since 2000.
Figures show Hong Kong's population rose from 6,900,700 in 2006 to 7,018,636 as of July last year. The Census and Statistics Department says the crude birth rate - the number of births per 1,000 people - rose from seven in 2003 to 11.3 last year.
Birth registration data for the first nine months of this year reached 59,459, about 6 per cent more than the 56,079 births recorded in the same period last year, and expectations are for this trend to continue. Year on year, 94 more births were registered in July's total of 6,650, August saw an increase of 346 to 6,607 and 7,259 births were registered in September, up 104.
There is usually a slight discrepancy between the number of babies born in a period and the corresponding number of registered births because mothers are allowed to register their babies up to 42 days after they are born.
The baby boom this year was accompanied by an increase in the number of marriages, with 33,445 couples tying the knot in the first nine months, compared with 31,882 a year ago, according to immigration data.
Katrina Walker, a director of retailer Bumps to Babes, said she was pleasantly surprised the number of new parents had not fallen this year, with sales remaining stable despite the downturn.
Although more babies are often seen as a sign of optimism, which was largely absent as companies shed jobs and slashed salaries, recessionary baby booms are not unheard of. Iceland, which was virtually bankrupted by the credit crunch, recorded a 3.5 per cent jump in births last year, while about 25,600 births were registered last year in Northern Ireland, the most since 1991.
It is difficult to determine exactly what effect the economy has on the desire to have children because different people have different reasons. For some, the decision to have a child is an emotional or biological one. Other parents will likely think twice about having one, especially during lean times. A decade ago, during the dotcom bubble, the number of births in Hong Kong rose from 51,281 in 1999 to 54,134 the following year as stock markets peaked, then fell to 48,219 in 2001.
Lucinda Wong, a 37-year-old working mother who had her first child in September, said her biological clock was the main reason for starting a family. She said she had wanted a child for a long time and had saved enough over the years.
Family Planning Association executive director Susan Fan Yun-sun said birth rates always fluctuated and were influenced by many factors apart from finances.
