School system not to blame for record low 31,100 births in Hong Kong: minister
Births in Hong Kong fell to a record low of 31,100 in 2025, but the education minister has insisted that school policies are not to blame. The Census and Statistics Department said on Thursday that the city’s population was provisionally estimated at 7.51 million in 2025, up 0.1 per cent year on year, with a…
Births in Hong Kong fell to a record low of 31,100 in 2025, but the education minister has insisted that school policies are not to blame.
The Census and Statistics Department said on Thursday that the city’s population was provisionally estimated at 7.51 million in 2025, up 0.1 per cent year on year, with a net inflow of 29,100 Hong Kong residents. Some 50,000 deaths were recorded in the year.
The number of births last year was 1,400 fewer than the previous record low of 32,500 in 2022.
A government spokesman did not address the low birth rate, but attributed the increase in overall population to various measures, including talent attraction and labour importation schemes, that “brought people into Hong Kong from other places around the world to offset the impact of natural population decline”.
In 2023, local authorities launched a “baby bonus” scheme, offering a one-off HK$20,000 (US$2,560) cash award to new parents to encourage families to have children. The scheme was planned for an initial three years.
Authorities earlier estimated that the annual number of births in the second and third financial years, 2024-25 and 2025-26, of the scheme could reach 39,000 – a 20 per cent jump from 2022.
To further encourage Hongkongers to have babies, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced in his 2025 policy address that starting from the 2026-27 financial year, parents of newborns would also enjoy an annual tax allowance of HK$130,000 (US$16,667) for two years after birth, up from one year.
