With a pandemic and now a recession, it’s no wonder young people in Hong Kong aren’t having children

Don’t expect Hongkongers to heed Elon Musk’s warning about population decline – or follow the billionaire’s example by having lots of children

For most couples, the cost of raising a family, combined with economic and geopolitical uncertainty, is too much of a deterrence

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Crowds in Hong Kong, where the birth rate reached a 30-year low in 2021. Photo: Getty Images

Alice Wu

Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA.

Published: 6:45am, 8 Aug 2022

Take it from the world’s richest man Elon Musk, who can’t seem to stop going on about the apocalyptic population collapse: falling birth rates are by far the “biggest danger” to civilisation. Musk has famously warned that Japan could “cease to exist” and that soon Italy “will have no people”.

When mainland China’s birth rate hit a record low last year, and the official 1.15 fertility rate was even lower than Japan’s, Musk was, naturally, all over it. He has fathered 10 children and takes pride in doing his part to save the world from ageing and population decline. That’s a bit rich, really.

As in other parts of the world, Hong Kong people have been struggling with the rising cost of having a family. The number of babies born last year plunged to a 30-year low of just 36,953 live births. That compares with more than 60,000 in 2016 and 95,000 in 2011.

Our fertility rate is now 0.772 per woman; not only is it below the replacement level of 2.1, it is far below national levels. No wonder Musk didn’t bother to tweet about it – the number is so low we’ve already been written off.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk in 2019. The billionaire has warned of a looming population collapse. Photo: AP Photo

Indeed, we appear to have ceased to exist for many already. A significant number of foreign businesses based in the city have either permanently relocated or are in the process of moving. The results of a survey released this spring by the European Chamber of Commerce of Hong Kong painted a bleak picture: only 17 per cent of all European businesses in Hong Kong had no relocation plans, yet.

The cry from Hong Kong’s business community has been persistent and consistent: the strict Covid-19 measures are making it impossible to do business in the city. Covid-19 has severed Asia’s “world city” from the mainland and from the world.