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whom it cannot yet serve as fully as might be wished): the population,
moreover, is still a young one, about 37 per cent being below age 20 and
25.3 per cent under age 15.
1.5
The rate of natural population increase, however, has been
dropping steadily over a ten-year period, from 14.9 per thousand in 1970
to 12.0 in 1980 (a result of the birth rate declining from 20.0 to 16.9
per thousand during this period and the death rate remaining stable at
about 5 per thousand). Moreover, the age structure of the population has
changed considerably over the past ten years, with a markedly lower
proportion now under 15 years, a growing proportion of working-age
A redistribution of the population and a declining dependency ratio.
population is also being effected with the development of six new towns in
the New Territories, designed to alleviate the high densities of existing
urban areas and to provide better housing and general living conditions.
These demographic changes, though mostly welcome in the long term, have
created awkward short-term problems of supply and demand in education
particularly overprovision of resources in areas of declining population
and underprovision in developing areas. The problems have not proved
insuperable but their solutions have tended to determine the direction and
pace of some educational developments in ways which have not always been
entirely consistent with the underlying aims of educational policies.
1.6
In spite of the recent adverse effects of illegal immigration on social development and the fact that Hong Kong has inevitably been affected
by the sluggish state of the world economy, with a recent fairly sharp
slowing down in the growth rate of domestic exports, prospects for future
social and economic development are bright. The growth of the economy since
the recession in 1974 and 1975 has been sustained for five consecutive years
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