HONG KONG GIRDS FOR VAST CENSUS
HONG KONG AUTHORITIES are preparing to tackle a mathematical problem of extraordinary complexity: a head count of the persons living in the crowded British crown colony.
No census has been taken since 1931, when the population was a mere 840,-000; now it is believed to be somewhere between 3,000,000 and 3,500,000. It is not the size of the population that will concern the census takers, however, but the fact that several hundred thousand Chinese have slipped from the mainland and, having no papers of any-kind, will do their utmost to avoid being counted.
Added to this is the problem of the considerable number of street dwellers who sleep wherever night happens to find them. Were it not for these formidable factors, the business of counting heads in this colony would be relatively simple, for almost 85 per cent of the population lives within the 36 square miles that constitute urban Hone: Kong.
As a result, downtown Hong Kong districts now have the highest population density in the world; in some tightly packed areas there are 2,400
persons per square kilometer (1 square kilometer equals .3861 square miles), against the Asian average of less than 70, and a world figure of- 20. And at the present rate of increase (3.4 per cent annually―among the highest in Asia) the colony's population will be doubled in 25 years.
Some idea of the resultant crowding is given in a preliminary census survey just completed. This indicates that in the area surveyed on an average basis 12 persons occupy premises measuring 20 feet by 20. Some 35 per cent of the occupants of the survey area live in cubicles, and 16 per cent have nothing more than bed space.
The survey report indicated that one quarter of the colony's labor force sleeps in the place of work, and of 5,000 househoMs surveyed only 8 per cent possessed a room that was not used for sleeping.
It is estimated that sore 5,000 to 6,000 Chinese from the r^cii^'ind still are smuggled into Hong Kong each month by sea alone. Battenel down in diesel-driven junks in Macao, when Hong Kong waters are reached, they are transferred to speedboats that can
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CHINATOWN NEWS, OCTOBER 18, 1959
PACE FIVE