The number of registered births in Hong Kong plunged to a record low of 31,714 in 2025, despite a range of government incentives to encourage families to have more children, ending two years of growth, the Post has learned.
The figure was also well below the government’s target of increasing births by 20 per cent from the previous historic low recorded in 2022.
Experts and parents said the government needed to tackle the underlying causes of the city’s low birth rates.
“Those incentives were short-term only and did not motivate me to have my second child last year,” Lilian Chan Lai-lai told the Post on Wednesday.
Chan made news headlines when she gave birth to her second daughter in August last year at the age of 58 – a decision she described as the result of “thoughtful consideration and pursuit”.
She said the government needed to offer “longer-term measures” such as ensuring housing security for newborns “to encourage young people to have children”.
In reply to the Post, the office of Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk Wing-hing said 31,714 births were registered in 2025 – 14 per cent fewer than the previous year and 3 per cent below the 2022 record low.
“Registered births” refers to the registration of a newborn with the Immigration Department.
Under Hong Kong law, parents must register their child to obtain a birth certificate, typically within about two months after the baby is born.
The number of registered births closely mirrors the actual number of newborns, with figures in 2023 and 2024 nearly identical to the corresponding totals.
To tackle the low birth rate, the government has adopted a multipronged approach since 2023 to encourage childbirth and boost the population.
Last April, the government said the declining trend in fertility had begun to reverse, citing the easing of the pandemic and the roll-out of various initiatives to encourage childbirth.
Among the measures was a one-off cash reward of HK$20,000 (US$2,565) for each eligible baby born from October 25, 2023, over a three-year period, with a total budget of HK$2.28 billion.
But the low birth rate meant that only 54 per cent, or HK$1.23 billion, of the funds had been disbursed as of December 31, with the programme expiring in nine months, according to the office.
A total of 61,758 applicants had received the reward as of the end of last year.
“My baby got that cash allowance and we treated it like a red packet,” Chan said.
In early 2024, when seeking funding approval, authorities predicted the number of births would increase by 20 per cent from about 32,500 in 2022 to around 39,000 a year.
Other measures aimed at boosting the birth rate include a tax break and a shorter wait for public rental housing or priority to buy subsidised flats for families with newborns.
The government has also pledged to expand infant and child day care service by setting up 15 new child care centres from 2026-27 that will offer about 1,500 places for babies and children up to the age of three, almost double the current supply.
Service quotas for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in public hospitals will be gradually increased from 1,100 to 1,800 per year by 2028-29.
The Hospital Authority has already raised the annual quota for IVF services by 100 to 1,200 in 2024-25, with a further 300 places to be added in 2025-26.
The authority has also included IVF medicines as “special drugs” in its formulary to ease the financial burden on patients.
Paul Yip Siu-fai, the chair professor in population health at the University of Hong Kong’s department of social work and social administration, said the uptick in 2024 was largely due to the Year of the Dragon, which people deemed auspicious for having children.
“The number naturally came down after the Year of the Dragon,” he said.
Yip added that higher educational attainment among women and the prevalence of small-family norms in Hong Kong have led many couples to have no children or just one, keeping the birth rate persistently low.
He said the new baby bonus was only a “show appreciation and gratitude” towards parents but definitely not a reason for families to have children.
Yip said the government must address the fundamental reasons why people are choosing not to have babies.
“Some people tend not to have babies because they think Hong Kong is not a suitable place to raise children, whereas they might consider having them after they leave the city,” he said. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
