373
No.
30
91
HONGKONG.
CENSUS REPORT 1891.
Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government, on the 17th August, 1891.
REGISTRAR GENERAL'S OFFICE,
HONGKONG, 15th August, 1891.
SIR,-With reference to my letter No. 142 of the 4th June last, forwarding the total number of the population of the Colony, ascertained by the Census taken on the evening of the 20th May last, I have now the honour to transmit the detailed returns.
2. The date fixed for taking the Census in Great Britain and its dependencies was the 5th of April. As it was known that many of the Chinese resident in Hongkong would be absent from the Colony during the month of April in order to be present at the worshipping of tombs festival in China, it was decided to take the Census in Hongkong on the 30th April. On further enquiries being made it was found that many of the absentees would not return till May, and it was also ascertained that a large number of Chinese leave the Colony every year about the end of April and beginning of May to attend a festival in honour of the Queen of Heaven held at a place on the mainland of China called Chik Wán. Under these circumstances the date for taking the Census was again postponed till the evening of the 20th of May, as it was obviously undesirable to take a Census of the people at a time when many of the residents would not be in the Colony.
3. The previous Census was taken in 1881 on the 3rd April, a date which, as already indicated, is not a favourable one for enumerating the people. But as, for some reason which I have not been able to discover, five per cent. was added in the case of the Chinese resident in Victoria and the Villages and ten per cent. in the case of the boat population of Victoria to the actual numbers ascertained by the taking of the Census, it is probable that the figures of the 1881 Census are rather in excess of what was the real population than below it. On this account, therefore, the increase in the population shown by the 1891 Census is all the more striking.
4. A reference to Return I A and I B will show that the total population now amounts to 221,441, as compared with a total of 160,402 in 1881, showing an increase in ten years of 61,039 or 38.05 per cent., which is equivalent to an annual increase of 3.27 per cent.
5. Inquiry into the growth of the population of the Colony since the taking of the first Census in 1857, when the population was 77,094, up to the present year, shows that there has been a steady increase at the rate of 3.15 per cent. each year. From Return II, in which is given the result of each Census held in Hongkong, of which there have been seventeen, it will be seen that the largest annual increase took place between the years 1872-1876, viz., 3.345 per cent.
The second largest annual increase is that which has occurred between 1881-1891, viz., 3.277 per cent.
6. An examination into the European and American population (including the Military and Navy), which amounts to 8,545 as compared with 7,990 in 1881 (see Return I 4 and I B) shows an increase of 555, the chief increase being in the resident civil population, which is 1,155 larger than it was ten years ago, and the chief decrease being under the head of British Navy, which in 1881 was 2,437, and in 1891 only 1,356, a falling off of 1,081, owing to nearly all the men-of-war having been absent from the waters of the Colony when the Census was taken. The numbers of the Military show an increase of 225, there being a decrease under all heads except that of men, which shows an increase of 275.
7. An analysis of the numbers of the various nationalities which constitute the European and American resident population, exclusive of the British Army and Navy, is given in Return III A and III B. The chief increase is among the British, with a total of 1,448 as compared with 785 in 1881, which is equivalent to an increase of 84.46 per cent. The Portuguese population in 1881 was 1,869. It now shows an increase of 220, the total being 2,089, or an increase of 11.77 per cent. There has been a marked falling off under the head of Portuguese Boys and Girls, in the former case to the number of 137, in the latter to the extent of 68. It is believed that a great check has been given to the growth of the Portuguese population in Hongkong owing to the difficulty now experienced by the Portuguese in finding employment. Positions once open to and generally held by them are now occupied by Britishers or members of other nationalities, so that the number of Portuguese employed in European firms is fewer than it used to be and seems likely to decrease still further. The German population has increased from 188 to 208; the American from 70 to 93, and the French from 42 to 89.