Friday, August 11, 2000 |
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The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) has decided to adopt a "resident population" method to compile population figures in order to better reflect the actual situation of residency and mobility patterns of Hong Kong people. Announcing the new compilation method today (August 11), the Commissioner for Census and Statistics, Mr Frederick Ho, said that with statistical development and advancement in information technology, it has been the international trend to shift from the "de facto" method to the "resident population" method. "In Hong Kong's case, we have been using an "extended de facto" method to compile population figures. By applying the "de facto" method, all persons who are in Hong Kong at the reference time-point including permanent and non-permanent residents of Hong Kong as well as visitors are covered. To avoid fluctuations in the "de facto" population around major public holidays when movement of people between Hong Kong and Mainland/Macau is usually enormous, the method is "extended" to count in such permanent residents who are in Mainland or Macau at the reference time-point but who will stay there only for a short time," Mr Ho explained. "As the social and economic ties between Hong Kong and the Mainland have become closer and closer in the past few years, the residency and mobility patterns of Hong Kong people are also undergoing greater change. As a result, the "extended de facto" method has gradually lost its applicability." he said. "The trend for Hong Kong Permanent Residents to stay in the Mainland or Macau on a long-term basis for reasons of retirement, work or marriage is on the increase. Also, a considerable number of Hong Kong residents are overseas for work, touring or studies. Applying the "de facto" method would lead to fluctuations in the population figures and thus limits its ability to reflect the actual situation," Mr Ho explained. "Besides, according to the definition of "de facto" population, visitors to Hong Kong are included but strictly speaking they are not part of the Hong Kong Population," he added. After a thorough review on the method of compiling the population figures, and backed up by enhanced capabilities of computers that allow computation of large volume of anonymised passenger movement data, the Department decided to keep up with the international trend of using the "resident population" method. To reflect the residency and mobility patterns that are particular to Hong Kong, the definition of "resident population" will comprise "usual residents" and "mobile residents". The technical definition of "usual residents" includes two categories of people: (1) Hong Kong Permanent Residents who have stayed in Hong Kong for at least three months during the six months before or for at least three months during the six months after the reference time-point, regardless of whether they are in Hong Kong or not at the reference time-point; and (2) Hong Kong Non-permanent Residents who are in Hong Kong at the reference time-point. As for "mobile residents", they are Hong Kong Permanent Residents who have stayed in Hong Kong for at least one month but less than three months during the six months before or for at least one month but less than three months during the six months after the reference time-point, regardless of whether they are in Hong Kong or not at the reference time-point. On the basis of the new method for compiling population figures, the "Hong Kong Resident Population" as at end-1999 was 6.76 million, being 0.21 million (or 3%) less than the previously released "extended de facto" population of 6.97 million. "One should note that the previously released figure includes 0.14 million visitors, who are now excluded in the revised figure," Mr Ho pointed out. As at end-1999, there were a total of 188 000 "mobile residents". The above figures have been obtained through statistical processing of passenger movement data. "In this processing, all the personal data are anonymous and the identities are kept strictly confidential," Mr Ho said. Mr Ho said that replacing application of the "de facto" method by the "resident population" method was a technical revision. "The change in the figures is not large. In the short term, the revised series of population figures will not have significant influence on the planning of public services. In the longer term, as the revised series will better reflect the actual situation of the Hong Kong Population and provide richer information on the residency and mobility patterns, they will contribute better to government's forward planning," he said. Population figures will continue to be released every half-year by way of press release, with the preliminary figures to be released within two months after the reference time-point and the revised figures to be released a further six months later. The C&SD will also start to apply the new population basis for compiling labour force statistics, as well as for producing population projections for the future. |
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