About Hong Kong
Hong Kong is a vibrant city, and a major gateway to Mainland China. Visit Here for more information.
Hong Kong’s economy is characterised by free trade, low taxation and minimum government intervention. It is the world’s 8th largest trading economy, with the mainland of China as its most significant trading partner. Hong Kong is also a major service economy, with particularly strong links to mainland China and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region.
- Currency: Hong Kong dollar
- GDP: HK$2,865.7 billion (2019)
- GDP per capita: HK$381,714 (2019)
- Real GDP growth: -1.2% (2019)
- Labour force: 3.966 million (2019)
At the south-eastern tip of China, Hong Kong covers Hong Kong Island, Lantau Island, the Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories, including 261 outlying islands. Between Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula lies Victoria Harbour, one of the world’s most renowned deep-water harbours.
- Total land area: 1,113.76 square kilometres
- Land developed: less than 25%
- Country parks and nature reserves: 40%
Hong Kong’s climate is sub-tropical, with temperatures dropping below 10 degrees Celsius in winter and exceeding 31 degrees Celsius in summer. It is warm, sunny and dry in autumn, cool and dry in winter, warm and humid in spring, and hot and rainy in summer.
- Average annual rainfall: 2,398.5mm
- Wettest months: June and August
- Driest months: January and December
Hong Kong’s population was approximately 7.51 million in mid-2019. People of Chinese descent comprise the vast majority of the population.
- Population density: 6,930 people per square kilometre (as at mid-2019)
- Crude birth rate: 7.0 per 1,000 (2019)
- Percentage of population of Chinese ethnicity: 92%1
- Other significant national groups
- Philippines (200,925 total)
- Indonesia (177,530 total)
- India (35,012 total).
1. Results from 2016 Population By-census
Chinese and English are the official languages of Hong Kong. English is widely used in the Government and by the legal, professional and business sectors. Trilingual professionals who speak English, Cantonese and Putonghua play a vital role in the numerous enterprises trading in Hong Kong or doing business with mainland China and Taiwan.
Proportion of population aged 5 and over by usual spoken language1:
- Cantonese: 88.9%
- Putonghua: 1.9%
- Other Chinese dialect: 3.1%
- English: 4.3%
- Other language: 1.9%