Hong Kong births fall to record low in 2025

Hong Kong's birth rate hits a record low of 31,714 in 2025, despite government incentives including cash bonuses, housing perks, and expanded childcare support. The decline reflects high living costs and long work hours discouraging families from having more children.

Reuters

15 January 2026 at 08:40:45

Image of Hong Kong city's urban landscape courtesy of Denise Chan/Unsplash via Wix

Denise Chan/Unsplash via Wix

Births in Hong Kong fell to a record low of 31,714 in 2025, down 14% from a year earlier, the city's government said on Thursday, despite a raft of measures over the past three years to encourage baby making.

The news, disclosed in a government email, comes as mainland China is set to report a drop in births and a fourth consecutive decline in population on January 19.

The Asian financial hub is one of the world's most expensive places in the world to own a house. Homes are often tiny, while long work hours and costly childcare prompt many to increasingly opt out of having children or limit themselves to one.

Incentives unveiled by the city's leader John Lee in 2023 included cash bonuses of HK$20,000 ($2,600) for each baby, tax breaks, and shorter waits for public rental housing or priority in buying subsidised apartments.

The government also pledged to double the number of infant and child daycare centres and quotas for in vitro fertilisation in public hospitals.

Official figures of births are due in the first quarter.

($1=7.7981 Hong Kong dollars)

-Farah Master/Reuters