Every advanced economy except the US is suffering from a fertility rate that is too low. While immigration can offset that, not many people are keen at present to move to Hong Kong, given all of its recent problems. People have been leaving, of course.
The number of children being born in Hong Kong each year has been in steady decline since 2014, but the decrease quickened to an almost 40% drop between 2019 and 2022, falling from 52,900 to 32,500 births last year, according to government data.
Wall Street Journal
That means the current fertility rate is 0.8, even lower than South Korea.
The government is now offering a $20K (Hong Kong dollars, around $2500 USD) bonus for new babies, but like most countries they are offering too little to make much difference. 40% of young local women say that Hong Kong is not a suitable place for child-rearing (up from 16% just over a decade ago), and 44% of women have no children.
The situation is similar to climate change, with governments only willing to make minor concessions, that ultimately won’t fix the problem.