Commonwealth Parliamentary Association
28th Annual Conference: The Bahamas : 16 22 October 1982
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Brief No.
HONG KONG'S POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SITUATION
Geography
1.
Total land area: 1,064 square kilometres (about 400
square miles): 16% built up, 9% for farming and 75% marginal
or unusable.
Population
2. 1945: 600,000. By 1971: 4.1 million. 1981: 5,2 million.
Present density: 4,900 persons per square kilometre (one of
the highest in the world). In 1980 the growth rate was 2.6%
above the natural increase, mainly because of illegal immi-
gration from China. It eased back to 1.7% in 1981, with the
adoption of tougher measures against illegals.
3.
456,000 legal and illegal immigrants have entered Hong Kong
from China in the last four years; and 91,000 Vietnamese
refugees of whom 13,000 had not been resettled at the end of
1981.
/Constitution