Demographic factors are the most important drivers of Hong Kong’s long-term economic future. The chief executive’s Policy Address this year proposes several measures to increase the size and quality of our workforce. This is a welcome step to rebuild our adult working population lost through ageing and emigration.
Hong Kong’s post-war economic success was built on immigrants who arrived from all over the world, especially the mainland. Hong Kong has also been a source of immigrants for many developed countries. In 2011, the recorded Hong Kong-born population in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries exceeded 600,000.
This is clearly an underestimate as it does not include emigrants from Hong Kong who were born on the mainland, nor the descendants of Hong Kong emigrants.
The government estimates that since 1980 some 800,000 Hong Kong residents have emigrated overseas, including those born outside Hong Kong. If we include emigrants who left before 1980, the total number could easily exceed 1 million, or about 15 per cent of Hong Kong’s current resident population.
If their children are included, the number reaches as high as 1.5 million – about 20 per cent of the population.
These are very high numbers compared with Singapore and Taiwan, whose populations living abroad are about 4 per cent and 2.1 per cent, respectively.