Macao’s population climbed by 1,500 people between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first of 2025, according to the latest demographic statistics released by the Statistics and Census Service (known by its Portuguese initials DSEC). There were 687,900 people living here at the end of March, with females accounting for 53.7 percent of the total.
The increase was largely due to an increase in non-resident workers living in Macao, according to the DSEC. As female domestic workers make up a significant portion of these, the city’s population tends to have a slight gender imbalance.
There were 750 live births across the first quarter of the year, a decrease of 106 year-on-year indicating that efforts to boost the SAR’s worryingly low birth rate have yet to gain traction. Marriage registrations came in at 717, down by 220 year-on-year.
[See more: How to boost Macao’s birth rate? The head of the Holy House of Mercy has ideas]
Meanwhile, 637 people died in the same period, down by 4 year-on-year. The top three causes of death were cancer (35.3 percent); cardiovascular issues, including heart attacks (28.4 percent); and respiratory illnesses (11.9 percent).
The figures also offered insights into population movement, noting that the number of new arrivals from the Chinese mainland with one-way permits totalled 685 in the first quarter – a 41 percent year-on-year reduction. The number of mainland Chinese being granted a new right of abode came in at 539, up by 267 year-on-year.
At the end of the third quarter, Macao’s population was at 98.8 percent of its record high of 696,100 – a figure recorded in the first quarter of 2020, before Covid-19 restrictions forced many non-resident workers to leave the territory.
