Registrar-Generals-Department-Annual-report-1967-1968 — Page 61

Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Kowloon

New Territories:

Islands District

Sai Kung District Tai Po District

Tsuen Wan District

Yuen Long District

Total

1,404

31

88

389

84

•

477

1,069

2,473

This total represented an increase of 370 over the 1966-67 total. At one time there used to be long waiting lists of applicants, but the substantial reduction in the number of applications since the peak of 7,124 in 1962-63 has enabled the registration teams to reduce delays to the minimum required for the process of verification, and by 31st March 1968 the total number of applications on the waiting list for all districts, urban and rural, was only 107. Of these 107 outstanding applications, 35 were in the urban area, the remaining 72 in the New Territories.

167. Table XXXVII gives the number of births post-registered after one year from birth during the period 1945-57 and the years 1957-58 to 1967-68, from which it will be seen that no less than 68,005 have been registered in the 23 years since the war. The decline in the number of such registrations since 1962-63 up to 1966-67 is due partly to the back-log of unregistered births which occurred during and immediately after the war having been greatly reduced, and partly to the fact that for many years past only a small percentage of births have not been registered soon after the birth. It will be noted that the number of births post-registered in the year 1967-68 has again slightly increased and that the number registered in the urban areas was for the first time greater than that registered in the New Territories. This increase is believed to be due at least in part to more people seeking overseas employment and migration to foreign countries, since many applicants were known to require birth certificates for passport purposes.

168. Table XXXVIII gives the numbers of births post-registered in 1967-68 more than one year after birth by sex and age group. This reveals that of the 2,473 post-registrations 1,052 were in respect of males and 1,421 in respect of females. The preponderance of females appears to indicate that more care was taken at the time of birth to register males than females. The age group with the highest number of post- registrations was the 1-4 group, and the second highest the 5-9 group.

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