(1) Sexes.
118
Part IV.
SEXES, AGES AND CONJUGAL CONDITION.
The total population enumerated on March 7, 1931, was 849,751 persons, of whom 491,858 were males and 357,893 were females. The proportion of females to males was 727.63 per 1,000.
Considering the civilian population only there were 482,580 males and 357,893 females, giving a total of 840,473 and a proportion of females to males of 741.62 per 1,000.
The following table (15) shows the numbers of the sexes in 1921 and 1931, and the proportion of females to males as regards the civilian resident population only, that is, the Defence Forces are omitted and also the Mercantile Marine which, though it included a few female passengers, is preponderantly male and is not in the main domiciled in the Colony:
Table 15.
1931
1921
Males Females
Females
per 1,000
Females
per
males
Males Females 1,000 males
Island of Hong Kong... Kowloon and New
Kowloon
New Territories Afloat (small craft
only).
246,249 162,954
661.74 221,085 126,316
571.35
144,963 118,057
814.39 74,698 48,750 652.63 49,399 48,758 987.02 41,767 41,396 988.72
477,416 357,809
36,805 28,040 761.85 39,412 25,847 655.82
749.47 376,962 242,309 642.79
►
In 1901 the proportion of females to males was only 381.07 per thousand; in 1906 the proportion had risen to 433.58; by 1911 to 553.39; in 1921 it was 642.79; it is now 749.47. This shows that there has been a very great alteration in the sex constitution of the population during the last 30 years. The population is now a more settled one, consisting of families rather than of men alone, who used to be crowded together in lodging houses with their wives and families left in their villages in China. This change is most appreciable in Kowloon to which the new- comers appear to be going more than to the Island of Hong Kong. Even in 1921 Kowloon showed a higher proportion of females to males than Hong Kong; it is now even more strongly a family community. It is the more to be regretted, therefore, that statistics of the numbers of families resident in the Colony were not obtained in 1921 nor in 1931. The new immigrants are bringing their families with them to settle at least for a time in the Colony, and the old practice of leaving the wife and family in the country home, while the husband makes his living alone in Hong Kong, is falling into disfavour. Such a change in the sex constitution of a population is reflected, for example, in public morals, as in the diminishing popu- larity and the closure of certain establishments at West Point.
As is to be expected of a settled village community, the proportion of the sexes in the New Territories is about equal. There has been a slight increase in the male element in the last decade but it is inconsiderable and has probably little meaning. The actual diminution in numbers of the males living on small craft in the waters of the Colony was due, as is explained earlier, to the absence of a large part of the fishing fleet on Census Night.