I. GENERAL REVIEW
To the discerning visitor the inevitable impression taken away from Hong Kong is that of a vital and industrious community of great versatility living in the face of largely unpredictable economic trends. It is a young population of which 40.8% are under 15 years of age and 16% below the age of five. The low crude death rate of 5.9 per 1,000 and the relatively high birth rate of 34.2 per 1,000 with a low infant mortality rate of 37.7 per 1,000 all indicate that it is a healthy popula- tion. The general state of nutrition is good.
2. There are 14 census divisions with population densities of over 2.000 persons to the acre. Despite this density, the restricted water supply and the problems of environmental hygiene posed by pre-war Lenement buildings and the aggregations of squatter and roof top dwellings, the standards of personal hygiene maintained are creditably high. With a restricted land area of 3981 square miles and a natural increase of over 3% per annum, population densities must remain high. However, the resettlement and low cost housing estates that have been developed to meet rehousing needs, while planned for average densities of 1,800 to the acre, have protected water supplies, modern sewerage and highly organized public cleansing facilities. Apart from the Govern- ment Resettlement programme which has re-housed 439,000 squatters, private enterprise has provided accommodation with modern services for 500,000 people during the past six years. This is a significant advance towards higher standards of community health.
3. As an international seaport and airport and the terminus of the Kowloon-Canton Railway, Hong Kong is necessarily vulnerable to the introduction of disease from outside. The total recorded movement in and out of the Colony during 1961 was 2.449,953 persons of which air traffic movement accounted for 458,428; passengers to and from the frontier station at Lo Wu numbered 868,298. The number of people coming in and going out of the Colony by small boats and junks is difficult to assess and it is here that quarantine safeguards can be most readily breached.
4. Besides being centre for refugees who come in to make their home in Hong Kong, it is also a medical centre to which many come
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