I
POPULATION
No census of the population of the Colony has been held since 1931, when the population was found to be 948,751. As a result of unsettled conditions following the Japanese assault on China in 1937, the census which was to have been held in 1941 was not taken. There was a large influx of refugees into the Colony following the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war in North China in 1937, and their numbers were greatly increased when conflict spread to South China in 1938. An unofficial census made by the air raid wardens of the Colony in 1941, before the attack on Hong Kong by the Japanese, showed the population to be about 1,600,000, but this number was greatly reduced during the Japanese occu- pation, and it is estimated that the total amounted to about 500,000 when the Colony was liberated in 1945.
From the cessation of hostilities in August, 1945, the population increased rapidly and by the end of 1946 it was estimated at its pre-war level of 1,600,000. A year later, at the end of 1947, the estimate had risen to 1,800,000 and the Colony then received another large influx of refugees as a result of civil war in China, which spread rapidly southward in 1948 and 1949. In the spring of 1950 the population was estimated to be 2,360,000, and although some refugees left the Colony following the return of more settled conditions in China, the total population at the end of 1952 was assessed at approximately 2,250,000. While the majority are known to be Cantonese, and the next largest group is thought to be those who come from the neighbourhood of Shanghai, the total includes people from all parts of China and the racial composition is not known with any accuracy.
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