Macao’s population dropped by 400 people between the second and third quarters of year, according to the latest demographic statistics released by the Statistics and Census Service (known by its Portuguese initials DSEC). There were 686,600 people living here at the end of September, down from 687,000 at the end of June – though the number of females increased by 900.
The third quarter total represented a year-on-year rise of 5,300, which the DSEC mainly attributed to growth in the number of non-resident workers moving to the SAR over that period.
Females outnumbered males by 50,000 at the end of September, and made up 53.6 percent of the total population. The fact that Macao households often employ female domestic workers from offshore partly helps explain the skew, with official figures showing that 26,832 migrant women work in this role.
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There were 2,619 live births across the first three quarters of the year, a decrease of 132 year-on-year. Meanwhile, 1,862 people died in the same period, down by 525. The top three causes of death were cancer (36.8 percent); cardiovascular issues, including heart attacks (24.3 percent); and respiratory illnesses (16.2 percent). Year-on-year, the number of people registering marriages was down by 13 for the first nine months of 2024.
The DSEC’s figures also offered insights into population movement, noting that the number of new arrivals from the Chinese mainland with one-way permits totalled 2,445 across the period and that the number of mainland Chinese being granted a new right of abode came in at 788.
At the end of the third quarter, Macao’s population was at 98.6 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.
