103
The following tables give these comparative figures
(a) Island of Hong Kong.
Table 3.
ISLAND OF HONG KONG.
1931
1921
FORMER HEALTH DISTRICTS
Increase
Males
Females Total
Males
Females
Total
North Point
7,368
5,150 12,518
2,304
804
3,108
9,410
New Reclamation, Praya
East
4,603
3,718
8,321
8,321
No. 1. Causeway Bay,
Bowrington and
Wongneichong
13,852
18,774 27,126
9,977
8,162
18,139
8,987
IA & 2A Wanchai
16,824
2. Wanchai
18,566
12,922 14,441 33,007
29,746
16,643
10,318
26,956
2,790
16,291
11,356
27,647
5,360
Decrease
3. Upper Levels
6,196
4. Central
29,782
5,896 16,014
12,092
8,316
6,962
15,278
3,186
45,746 28,108
15,728
43,936
1,910
5. Central
19,348
10,735
30,088
18,896
11,169
30,065
18
6. Sheung Wan and
Decrease
Taipingshan
18,776
8,588 27,364
20,103
8,368
28,471
1,107
7. Sheung Wan and
Taipingshan
20,696
9,168 29,864
19,182
9,478
28,660
1,204
8. Salyingpun-North
of G.C.H.
20,715
7,315
28,030
19,748
7,103 26,851
1,179
9. Sairingpun
26,639
19,683
46,322
26,992
16,267
43,259
3,063
10. West Point
23,125
21,339
44,464
16,207
12,195
Hill District (Peak)
28,402
16,062
2,889
1,030
3,419
1,994
607
2,601
818
Pokfulam
1,346
947
2,293
1,132
652
1,784
509
Aberdeen & Aplichau
3,473
2,152
5,625
2,548
1,869
3,917
1,708
Hong Kong Villages (other)
2,014
1,223
3,237
784
289
1,073
2,164
Shaukiwan
11,087
8,859 19,946
11,860
5,494
17,354
2,592
+ 66,095
Totals
246,249
162,954 409,203 221,085 126,316
347,401
4,293
61,802
The total increase in the Island of Hong Kong amounts to 61,802 persons or 17.79% on the figures for 1921. This is considerably less than the increase in the previous decade, which was 103,078 or 42.19% on the figures for 1911. It is difficult to give any satisfactory explanation of this relatively smaller increase in Hong Kong and, as will be seen later, a very much larger increase in the Kowloon Peninsula, except in very general terms.
There are no grounds for suggesting that the enumeration was better done in Kowloon than in Hong Kong and that there would be fewer omissions on that account. The system adopted in carrying out the enumeration was the same in both cases; the organisation was identical and might be expected to have functioned better on the Island than in Kowloon; so that if the figures for one area are as nearly correct as it is possible to obtain, the same is true of the other area.
Some of the central districts in Hong Kong are grossly overcrowded and have no doubt reached a saturation point. Rents are high in the centre of the town where the land has been subject to considerable speculation since the early days of the Colony and this, of course, is one of the causes of overcrowding. The land is so valuable that more and more is being devoted to business premises which house much fewer people, but obtain higher rents than tenement flats. There is room for development elsewhere in Hong Kong but only, it would appear, at greater distances from the business centres than is the case in Kowloon. It is likely also that preference is being shown to the modern ferro-concrete type of building recently erected in Kowloon, with more open space around it, over the old wooden building which still predominates in Hong Kong and is in many cases dark, dirty, rat-infested, and wholly surrounded by other buildings.