The SAR’s population totalled 687,000 at the end of June, according to newly published data from the Statistics and Census Service (known by its Portuguese initials DSEC). That’s an 8,200 year-on-year increase, mainly due to an influx of non-resident workers.
The figure was also at 99 percent of its record high, 696,100 – recorded in the first quarter of 2020 before Covid-19 restrictions forced many foreign workers to leave.
If Macao’s population fluctuated from births and deaths alone, it would have risen by just 448 (1,709 live births minus 1,261 deaths) in the first half of 2024.
[See more: Young Macao residents don’t care much about marriage or child rearing, survey finds]
Females outnumbered males by 47,800 at the middle of the year, equating to 53.5 percent of the population. That’s a fair way off what the United Nations says is the global population’s average sex ratio: 49.6 women to 50.4 men.
Of course, Macao’s demographics are skewed by a large number of domestic helpers, many of whom are female non-resident workers. At the end of June, however, official figures showed this group totalled 26,504 – accounting for just over half of the female overhang.
Also in June, an academic at the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST)’s School of Business warned that Macao’s population could start shrinking in as few as five years if more wasn’t done to encourage childbirth.
[See more: A new government video to boost the birth rate is sparking an online backlash]
Lin Zijun noted that trends such as late marriage and late childbirth were impacting the city’s birth rate – which is far below the replacement rate of 2.1 – as was the increasingly high cost of childcare. He also pointed out that the challenge of caring for an increasing number of elderly would fall on declining numbers of young people.
