01.01.03. Key languages, ethnic groups and minority groups | Hong Kong SAR
01.01.03. Key languages, ethnic groups and minority groups | Hong Kong SAR
16 Aug 2022
The Basic Law of Hong Kong stipulates that Chinese and English are the two official languages of Hong Kong. In 2016, Cantonese is the predominant language spoken by 88.9% of the population and widely used in education, broadcasting, government administration, legislation, and judiciary, as well as for daily communication. English is a major working language spoken by 4.3% of the population and widely used in commercial activities and legal matters. Putonghua is more widely used due to the increase in tourism-related commerce from the mainland, which is spoken by 1.9% of the population. The proportion of population speaking other Chinese dialects is 3.1% and other language (Filipino, Indonesian, other Asian languages and other European languages) is 1.9% (HKSAR Government, 2019a).
Hong Kong is an ethnically homogenous society, with about 92% Chinese descent which comprise the vast majority of the population. For the non-Chinese population, it consists of various ethnic groups, including 31.5% Filipino, 26.2% Indonesian, 14.5% South Asian (6.2% Indian, 4.4% Nepalese, 3.1% Pakistani, 0.8% Bangladeshi and Sri-Lankan), 11.2% Mixed, 10.0% White, 1.7% Thai, 1.7% Japanese, 1.4% other Asian, 1.1% Korean, and 0.6% Black and Latin American (HKSAR Government, 2019a).
References:
HKSAR Government. (2019a, February 2019). GovHK: Hong Kong – the Facts. Retrieved from https://www.gov.hk/en/about/abouthk/facts.htm