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UK CONFIDENTIAL
10. Annual rainfall averages 2150 mm. Over three-quarters of this total falls during the five summer months May to September when temperatures are highest, bringing an uncomfortably high level of humidity averaging over 80% daily. In this part of the South China Sea, May to November are the critical months when typhoons are most likely to occur. Though not all of them come near Hong Kong, the colony is struck from time to time.
11.
The following selected data for Hong Kong illustrate these climatic features:
Month
Average Daily Temperature (°c)
Average Relative Humidity (%)
Average Monthly Rainfall (mm)
Max
Min
Feb
28
May
Aug
36
Nov
ommen
2.4
35.5
15.4
77 84
47
292
21.6
83
371
32
6.5
67
43
Average Yearly Total = 2210 mm
Population and Towns
12. An official estimate of the colony's population at the end of 1977 is 4 566 900. For the colony as a whole, this works out at an average density of 4354 per sq km. This is a very high average in itself, but the island of Hong Kong considered in isolation has a density of about 13 600 people per sq km and even higher figures can be reached if the calculations apply to selected urban areas of the colony. For most of this century, and particularly over the period between the end of World War II and the introduction of the Repatriation Policy in November 1974, population growth for Hong Kong was main- tained at an exceptionally high level by large numbers of refugees from the Chinese mainland, very many of whom entered the colony illegally despite strict controls. The population too, is a youthful one, about 41% being under 20 years of age. About 59% of the population was born in Hong Kong.
13. Ethnically, about 98% of the population is of Chinese origin, the southern provinces of the Chinese Peoples Republic and Kwantung in particular supplying the vast majority of the immigrants over the years. Non-Chinese from a wide variety of countries are also represented in the colony, as the following table shows:
From UK and Commonwealth
From Other Countries
UK India
24 564
8 233
Australia 5 701
Singapore 3 143
Canada
2 815
Others
9 230
53 686
(Figures as at end 1977)
USA
6 248
Pakistan
3 890
Portugal
3 681
Philippines
3 174
Indonesia
1 552
Japan
1 184
Germany W
1 176
Korea France
750
702
Holland
542
Others
6 482
29 381
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UK CONFIDENTIAL
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