Gender and Demography

[sui.generis]

The same demographic issues in singapore and hong kong have been played out in every developed nation. Europe especially and the US as well face an ever decreasing repopulation rate, which is mostly being addressed through immigration. It puts stress on social programs as well an economy that needs young workers.

People get a little wealth under their belts, and suddenly kids aren't as important any more.

[Lu]

The Census and Statistics Department said a by-census taken last July and August found the number of never-married males aged 15 and above rose to 34.3 percent in 2006, up from 33.9 percent in 2001. The figure recorded in 1996 was 34.2 percent.

The figure was even more alarming for women, rising from 28.9 percent in 1996 to 30.1 percent in 2001 and 30.7 percent in 2006. Many of the unmarried women had schooling to higher education level.

Not sure just how bad it is, after all, for people form 15-20 it's perfectly normal not to be married. Also take into consideration the percentage of gays, generally 4-5% (so I was told), a number of them probably gets married anyway in HK, but some won't and they'll be happy with that.

Actually, the numbers are still really high...

Data released Thursday also showed a switch from a male-dominant society to a female-dominated city with 1,000 women to every 911 men last year compared with 1,037 men per 1,000 women in 1996.

And this in 10 years' time?! Where did all those women come from? Or where did all those men go?

[bhchao]

And this in 10 years' time?! Where did all those women come from? Or where did all those men go?

Combination of low fertility rate, continued rise of women's economic status, and the resulting increase in life expectancy of women (which all things being equal is always higher than men's life expectancy)

[Lu]

Combination of low fertility rate

How does this result in less men and more women? The low fertility rate in Europe does not have this effect (afaik), and the low fertility rate in mainland China is resulting in more men than women (that low fertility rate is of a different nature than the HK one, of course).

continued rise of women's economic status

Same question here. Do men leave to try their luck elsewhere? Do women flock over to HK because there they have a higher economic status? I don't suppose more men than women die of poverty, not in HK. Or am I just misunderstanding the numbers here?

and the resulting increase in life expectancy of women

I understand how this results in more women, but in such numbers?

Ya, I question everything, especially statistics... I hope I'm not too annoying!

[gato]

There was a massive emigration out of HK before its scheduled reunification in 1997 (about 600,000 emigrated out of HK in the decade before 1997) and then a gradual return to HK. That might have something to do with the change in gender balance, though I'm not sure what.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990s_in_Hong_Kong

1990s in Hong Kong

Before the handover, many Hong Kong residents were apprehensive of the future of Hong Kong as part of a communist state, which had cracked down on a student-led democratic movement in 1989. In 1990, the outflow of people reached a peak of 62,000 people in that year, or about 1 % of the population. It was 66,000 in 1992, 53,000 in 1993, and 62,000 in 1994.

The outflow of people was counter-balanced by a strong inflow of people from the following sources:

* Foreign domestic workers - The number of foreign domestic workers increased steadily. It grew from less than 9,000 per year before 1987 to 28,000 in 1992 and 32,000 in 1993. The majority of them were women from the Philippines, with substantial numbers of people from Indonesia and Thailand.

* Imported labour - With a sharply declining fertility rate, an aging population, and a growing economy, Hong Kong faced a shortage of labour in the second half of the 1980s. The government began to introduce labour importation schemes which allow employers to apply for permits to bring in technicians, craftsmen and operators. In 1994, a total of 11,000 places were made accessible.

* Illegal immigrants -A total of 35,500 illegal immigrants from mainland China were arrested and deported in 1994. The number had decreased from about 44,000 in 1993.

* Returnees - The official estimate of people who have returned to Hong Kong after acquiring foreign passports or residence rights is about 12 %.

Among the outflow of people from HK pre-1997:

- It's probably a fairly even split between men and women because often entire families emigrated together.

Among the returnees post-1997:

- It's hard to say whether more men or women would return to HK.

- Since more men are in science and engineering and the opportunities in those fields are better in the West than in HK, it's possible that more men than women would stay abroad.

Other possible reasons for the increase in the percentage of females in HK

- More men than women move to the mainland for work.

- More mainland women than men marry into HK.

- More males than female go abroad for study.

- Because of the science/engineering effect mentioned above, more men than women who study abroad stay abroad.

- More men than women die of overwork.

[anonymoose]

Hong Kong is famous for its shops, and as everyone knows, women love shopping, so they all flock to Hong Kong.

[Woodpecker]

I suppose one way to solve this problem is to put a sign at every airport saying:

WANTED: Eligable males aged 15-35! Free HK ID card!

On a more serious note, what about the population of Westerners and other foreigners from outside HK and the Mainland? The article does not really touch on this even though Hong Kongers do marry non-Chinese. Is this number too small to offset the statistics?