(1) Geography
Of the total land arca of the Colony of 1,064 square
kilometres, 16% is built up, 9% is used for farming and the
remaining 75% is marginal or unusable).
(2) Population (end-year figures)
2. In 1945 the population of Hong Kong was only 600,000.
By 1971 it was 4.1 mn and by 1981 it was 5.2 inn (giving
a density of 4,900 persons per square kilometre, one of the
highest in the world).
3. In the six years ending 1977, the average annual growth
rate was 1.8% (of which 1.1% was due to natural increase and
0.7% to net immigration). The rate accelerated to 3.2% in
1978, 6.1% in 1979. In 1980, the rate at 2.6% was still
above the trend rate. It eased back to 1.7% in 1981 (thanks
to the abandonment of the touch-base policy in October 1980,
but legal immigrants from China are still entering at the
rate of 150 a day).
4. Altogether 456,000 legal and illegal immigrants entered
Hong Kong from China in the last four years; and 91,000
Vietnamese refugees of whom 13,000 had not been resettled at
the end of 1981. By end-April 1982, the number had fallen to
9,800, but it rose to over 12,000 by end-July and is still
rising. A closed camp policy has applied to new arrivals
since 1st July as a deterrent, for arrivals now tend to
be economic opportunists, rather than political refugees,
and resettlement opportunities are dwindling.
(3) Constitution
5. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth
Affairs is responsible to Parliament for the good government of Hong Kong as a dependent territory. The authority of the
Governor derives from the Letters Patent and certain obligations
are placed upon him by the Royal Instructions.
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