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Population: 6,305,413 (July 1996 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 19% (male 609,493; female 593,687)
15-64 years: 70% (male 2,312,141; female 2,094,156)
65 years and over: 11% (male 307,186; female 388,750) (July 1996
est.)

Population growth rate: 1.77% (1996 est.)

Birth rate: 10.5 births/1,000 population (1996 est.)

Death rate: 5.23 deaths/1,000 population (1996 est.)

Net migration rate: 12.42 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1996 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.1 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.79 male(s)/female
all ages: 1.05 male(s)/female (1996 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 5.1 deaths/1,000 live births (1996 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 82.19 years
male: 78.88 years
female: 85.71 years (1996 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.3 children born/woman (1996 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Chinese
adjective: Chinese

Ethnic divisions: Chinese 95%, other 5%

Religions: eclectic mixture of local religions 90%, Christian 10%

Languages: Chinese (Cantonese), English

Literacy: age 15 and over has ever attended school (1995 est.)
total population: 92.2%
male: 96%
female: 88.2%

Government
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Name of country:
conventional long form: none
conventional short form: Hong Kong
abbreviation: HK

Data code: HK

Type of government: dependent territory of the UK scheduled to
revert to China on 1 July 1997

Capital: Victoria

Administrative divisions: none (dependent territory of the UK)

Independence: none (dependent territory of the UK; the UK signed
an agreement with China on 19 December 1984 to return Hong Kong to
China on 1 July 1997; in the joint declaration, China promises to
respect Hong Kong's existing social and economic systems and
lifestyle)

National holiday: Liberation Day, 29 August (1945)

Constitution: unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and
practice; new Basic Law approved in March 1990 in preparation for
1997

Legal system: based on English common law

Suffrage: direct election 18 years of age; universal for permanent
residents living in the territory of Hong Kong for the past seven
years; indirect election limited to about 100,000 professionals of
electoral college and functional constituencies

Executive branch:
chief of state: Queen ELIZABETH II (of the United Kingdom since 6
February 1952