ENG-1953 — Page 36

Chapter 1

POPULATION

When the last census was taken, in 1931, the total population of the Colony was 849,751, including 9,434 Service personnel. The outbreak of hostilities between China and Japan in North China, in 1937, followed by the attack on Canton in 1938, resulted in a large influx of refugees into the Colony, and due to the unsettled conditions the census which was to have been held in 1941, was not taken. Before the Japanese attack on Hong Kong in 1941, an unofficial census made by the air raid wardens of the Colony showed the population to be about 1,600,000, but in 1945, at the end of the Japanese occupation, it was estimated that the total population was approximately 500,000.

A rapid increase in the population followed the cessation of hostilities in August, 1945, and at the end of 1947 the estimated total was 1,800,000. In 1948 and 1949, as a result of civil war in China, the Colony received another large influx of refugees, and in the spring of 1950 the total population was estimated to be 2,360,000. Some of these refugees left the Colony following the return of more settled conditions in China, but many preferred to remain in Hong Kong, and at the end of 1952 the total civilian population was estimated at 2,250,000.

In 1953, the number of persons entering and leaving the Colony by road, sea and air totalled 707,139 and 747,525, respectively, while registered births exceeded deaths by 57,244, births totalling 75,544 and deaths 18,300. At the end of the year the total population was again estimated at approximately 2,250,000.

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