ENG-1948 — Page 24

tion.

PART II

Chapter 1.

Until a census, at present planned for 1950, has been held any estimate of the population of Hong Kong is neces-

• POPULATION

sarily tentative. When the last official census was taken in 1931 the total population was found to be 849,751.* Since then violent Hluctuations have occurred, firstly, on the influx of refugees from Canton when the Japanese attacked that city in 1938, and later in the Japanese occupation of the Colony and after its subsequent liberation in 1945: In 1941 an unofficial census carried out by Air Raid Wardens gave a figure of over 1,600,000, a total which is believed to have been reached again in 1946, after an estimated reduction by one million during the Japanese occupa- Even after the end of 1946 the population continued to grow. So far as it is possible to estimate, the population at the close of the year 1947 may have been about 1,800,000. During the year 1948 the sum of the total number of births (47,475) and the total number of immigrants (1,997,760) was exceeded by the sum of the total number of deaths (13,434) and the total number of emigrants (2,107,378) by a margin of 75,577, but in view of the fact that these statistics are not comprehensive, in that they do not cover movements by land and by junk, no deduction that the population has decreased, or even that it has remained comparatively stable throughout the year, can be made with certainty.

In the month of October the available figures of immigration and emigration approximately balanced, while during the last two months of the year, immigrants exceeded emigrants by 11,308. In an average turnover of 356,000 passengers entering and leaving the Colony per mensem throughout the year, however, this figure is insignificant. The most than can be said is that while the population appears to have remained fairly stable throughout the greater part of the year, there were indications of a slight upward trend towards the end of the year.

Of the total population the majority are of Chinese race. During the year the number of Europeans and Americans permanently resident, excluding Service personnel and their de- * Note. In the Annual Report of the Colony for 1947 the figure of 864,117 was incorrectly given as the population in 1931.

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