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GEOGRAPHY
849,751. In 1941 a count of heads for Air Raid Precautions put the figure at about 1,600,000. On the re-occupation of the Colony in 1945 the Japanese sponsored Hong Kong News estimated the population at 650,000. The most recent census was taken in March 1961 and is described in detail in Chapter 1. The total population was 3,133,131 of which 1,610,650 were male and 1,522,481 were female.
The bulk of the population comes from the neighbouring Chinese province of Kwangtung. It consists of Cantonese, easily the largest group, followed by Hakka, Hoklo and Tanka. Since 1949 many have come from other parts of China, especially the coastal provinces. Not all of Hong Kong's phenomenal increase is due to immigrant population. The natural annual increase of officially registered births over deaths is close to 100,000. The greatest concentration of people (a little over 70 per cent) lives around the coastal fringes of the harbour, where the abundance of human beings strikes the visitor most forcibly.
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
The parts played by agriculture and fishing in the economy of Hong Kong tend to be overshadowed by trade and industry. Measured in terms of cash, however, agriculture makes a sub- stantial contribution to the Colony's wealth, for the annual value of production is thought to be well over $200,000,000, although only 50 square miles of the land area can be used for cultivation profitably. Fishing supports one of the largest single sea-fishing communities in the world.-More than 138,000 people live on boats and about 80,000 depend on the industry. Altogether more than 150,000 people rely on fishing either directly or indirectly as a means of livelihood. The annual value of production is about $60,000,000. Mining is also remarkably well developed and varied for such a small area. The principal minerals exploited are iron, tungsten, graphite and clay. The iron mine at Ma On Shan produces about 10,000 tons a month. Again, Chapter 7 gives more detail.
Industrial expansion in Hong Kong since the Second World War has been prodigious and is still continuing. An official Labour Administration Report of 1939 stated that 948 factories of all types had been registered: in 1955 there were 2,925 and in 1961 well over 6,000. These figures do not give the total number of
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