THE pace of decline in Hong Kong’s population abated as the city moved to reopen after years of pandemic-induced isolation.

Government data released on Thursday (Feb 16) showed that the city’s population fell by a net 12,900 people in the second half of 2022, down from a decrease of 55,400 in the first six months. The previously announced population drop of 121,500 in the year ended Jun 30, 2022 was revised to a fall of 67,000.

Starting in 2020, tens of thousands of people left Hong Kong as pandemic curbs and national security laws restricted activities. Among those who departed were the bankers, lawyers and other professionals that traditionally helped to make the city a freewheeling, international entrepot. The outflow has strained an already-ageing Hong Kong population and pushed up prices in the city’s main rival Singapore.

While Chief Executive John Lee focused on reopening the city after coming to power in July 2022, the slow pace hindered its return to the global stage. Unlike other international centres, Hong Kong retained many of its Covid curbs for most of the second half of 2022, including the obligatory use of a tracing app, limits on where visitors could go, and a mask mandate. The border with mainland China remained firmly shut until January this year, and international flights were constricted.

In a release accompanying Thursday’s data, a government spokesperson said: “The population decrease in the second half of 2022 has narrowed when compared to that in the first half, reflecting that movement of the Hong Kong population has begun to resume (gradually).”

From the end of 2019 through 2022, the city’s population fell by about 187,300 or 2.5 per cent, to 7.33 million. For the full year of 2022, the decline was 68,300.

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There is an urgency surrounding the need to boost Hong Kong’s allure. Its economy shrank in three of the past four years. A Centaline index showed that home prices plunged about 15 per cent in 2022, in the biggest drop since the global financial crisis. Businesses have struggled to find workers to meet increased demand, as visitors start to return. Local residents have been leaving in droves, along with expats.

Ahead of the data release, Eric Fong, head of the sociology department at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), said: “It’s important to keep local talent. They have been the majority in the labour market.”

Since August 2018, Hong Kong’s labour force has dropped about 5 per cent to 3.8 million people, according to official figures from this January.

Reviving the city’s status as a global financial centre is of importance to China as well. Premier Li Keqiang told Lee that the city needed to consolidate its role as an international hub when he visited Beijing last December. Meanwhile, President Xi Jinping praised Lee for reviving the local economy and safeguarding national security. Continued population outflows would threaten to undermine that goal.

Even as Hong Kong drops its pandemic curbs and reopens to the world, concerns about the blurring of boundaries between the semi-autonomous city and mainland China are likely to endure. 

Schools are now required to celebrate National Security Education Day every April. The government said this week that television and radio broadcasters using public airwaves in Hong Kong would be required to run programming on issues such as security law.

With countries such as the UK, Australia and Canada making it easier for Hongkongers to emigrate, pressure on the local population may continue. More than 150,000 Hongkongers have applied for the UK’s British National (Overseas) visa programme since it was announced in July 2020. The programme offers a path to British citizenship.

“If you say the border is open and people will naturally come back, we may have to be careful about this kind of assumption,” HKU’s Fong said. BLOOMBERG