[Big read] Hong Kong wants more babies, but couples need more than cash grants

In recent years, many parts of the world have been grappling with falling birth rates. Hong Kong is no exception. Its birth rate has fallen steadily over the past decade, with annual births plunging by almost half, from 61,000 in 2016 to 31,000 in 2025.

Hong Kong’s total fertility rate — the average number of children a woman has during her childbearing years — has also remained between 0.7 and 0.8 for much of this period. It stood at 0.841 in 2024 before falling further to 0.733 in 2025, among the lowest rates in the world.

The consequences are already being felt in the workforce. With fewer young people entering the labour market each year, the average age of Hong Kong’s workforce continues to rise. As large numbers of experienced workers retire, some industries are beginning to face talent shortages, making it harder to pass on technical expertise. 

Demographic concerns

In its latest “Manpower Projection Mid-term Update” report, released on 22 September, the Labour and Welfare Bureau projected that Hong Kong would still face a significant labour shortfall by 2028, with the most acute shortages in healthcare, construction, aviation, and innovation and technology.

The decline in births has also hit the education sector hard. As the number of children reaching Primary 1 and Secondary 1 age continues to fall, some districts now have more school places than students. In recent years, some under-enrolled kindergartens and primary schools have been forced to reduce classes or even close.

Faced with these demographic challenges, the Hong Kong government has stepped up efforts in recent years to encourage residents to have children. In October 2023, it introduced the Newborn Baby Bonus Scheme for the first time, offering eligible families a cash grant of HK$20,000 (US$2,548.46) for each newborn.

The government had expected the scheme to lead to a substantial rebound in births. But in 2024, the year after the scheme was introduced, the number of babies born in Hong Kong rose only slightly, from 33,000 the previous year to 37,000. In 2025, births fell back to just 31,000 across the territory.

A survey released in April by the Hong Kong Federation of Women found that 77% of respondents had no plans to have children. It identified three main structural barriers behind Hong Kong’s persistently low birth rate: heavy financial pressure, a shortage of housing and demanding work schedules.

In February, the Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions (HKFLU) surveyed women of childbearing age on whether they planned to have children, and why. Of the 550 respondents, 60% said they had no intention of having children. Even among the remaining 40% who wanted children, most planned to stop at one or two.

Lau Yuen-yee, deputy secretary-general of the HKFLU, told Lianhe Zaobao that financial considerations and living conditions were the main reasons Hong Kong residents chose not to have children. Lau, who is also a Wong Tai Sin District Council member, serves an area with many public housing blocks. She said public housing residents earn just over HK$10,000 a month, while raising a child can cost HK$5,000 to HK$6,000 a month, placing many parents under considerable strain.

“With the limited space in public housing, many people would rather keep pets than have children.”

Looking to Singapore for inspiration

Singapore, which is similarly grappling with a low birth rate, announced a new round of pro-natal policies in August this year. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong unveiled measures aimed at creating a more child-friendly environment, including enhanced child-support packages, longer parental leave, stronger childcare support, and lower child-rearing costs.

The initiatives have sparked extensive discussion in Hong Kong. Many politicians, academics and family groups argue that the high cost of raising children in Hong Kong means standalone subsidies have limited effect. They have called on the Hong Kong government to draw on Singapore’s more comprehensive approach to revive the city’s sluggish birth rate.

The new Policy Address issued by the Hong Kong government on 16 September did, in fact, devote considerable attention to encouraging residents to have children, including an 11-pronged package of measures.

On cash incentives, the existing HK$20,000 Newborn Baby Bonus Scheme will be extended for three years. With immediate effect, the bonus for a second or subsequent child will increase from HK$20,000 to HK$30,000.

On housing, Hong Kong families who buy a home between one year before and two years after a child’s birth can receive a stamp duty rebate of up to HK$20,000. Starting with the next round of Home Ownership Scheme flat sales, White Form applicants with newborns will also be allowed a maximum mortgage loan-to-value ratio of 95%, reducing their downpayment burden. The Home Ownership Scheme provides government-subsidised public housing sold below market prices, similar to Singapore’s HDB flats. White Form applicants are Hong Kong residents who have not received any government public housing benefits and meet income and asset limits.

In healthcare, the Hospital Authority will gradually increase the number of IVF treatment centres over the next three years. Free pre-pregnancy, prenatal and postnatal classes will be extended to community health centres across Hong Kong. Childcare services will also continue to expand, with additional subsidised childcare centres and places to ease parents’ caregiving burden.

Hong Kong Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk described the 11 new measures as highly practical. He said 57% of babies born in Hong Kong last year were firstborns and 43% were second or later children, suggesting that many Hong Kong families do not see one child as enough.

The government hopes that progressively larger incentives will encourage families that have overcome basic challenges such as housing to consider having more children.

Hong Kong’s pro-establishment political groups have praised the enhanced pro-natal measures in the Policy Address, and several Legislative Council members have even said they intend to have more children.

Legislator Yeung Wing-kit, who has two sons, said the most attractive aspect of the new policies was the improvement in childcare services. He said he would talk to his wife about having a third child.

New People’s Party legislator Ho King-hong is due to become a father in October this year. After learning that the government had stepped up its incentives for childbirth, he immediately called his wife to suggest having another child.

Ho, who has been married for eight years, said he had already decided to have children and made plans before the enhanced incentives were announced. He said his wife was excited about having a second child, and that he was not worried about her becoming an older mother, believing that modern medical care could provide sufficient support.

Incentives not ‘sweet’ enough

But when Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee appeared on a radio phone-in programme, many callers complained that the incentives were not “sweet” enough.

One resident said Hong Kong’s employment environment was currently unstable and that he did not dare to have children. Another highly educated person who wanted children said they were disappointed that the government’s assisted reproduction services did not support people aged above 40.

Wong Kwok-sang, a 30-year-old social welfare worker who got married in September this year, told Lianhe Zaobao that he plans to have children within the next three years. But he too was somewhat disappointed by the Hong Kong government’s measures to support childbirth.

“The measures may have some effect initially, but they will not help much in the long term,” he said.

Wong said he came from a typical working family in Hong Kong. Though his parents helped him pay the downpayment on a flat, he now services the mortgage himself with hefty monthly repayments. The government’s additional cash incentives, he said, were better than nothing but would at most buy babies a few more clothes.

Many of Wong’s friends are still unmarried but have long said they do not want children after marriage because of the pressures of life. He said many young couples face enormous pressure in the first month after a baby is born.

Private postpartum care centres or hotel confinement packages in Hong Kong typically cost from tens of thousands to more than HK$200,000. Postpartum carers who can prepare confinement meals, help with breastfeeding, and care for babies through the night are also in extremely short supply. For ordinary employees, these are all heavy financial burdens.

Wong believes that if the Hong Kong government wants to encourage residents to have children, it should take the lead in building public postpartum care centres or subsidise non-governmental organisations to run them, providing parents with affordable postnatal recuperation services backed by professional social welfare and medical support.

He said: “This policy is already well established in many cities in mainland China. It can safeguard new mothers’ mental health, reduce the risk of postpartum depression and, more importantly, send young families a strong message: the government is not bluntly telling you to have children, but will share the pressure with you from the day your baby is born.”

Dessert, but not the main course

However, the Hong Kong Economic Journal quoted an anonymous government official on 22 September as saying that many Hong Kong residents’ low willingness to have children was a reality. Given Hong Kong’s fiscal and demographic circumstances, it was impossible to provide comprehensive support for newborns as welfare states do.

The package, the official said, is meant mainly for families who already want children: “We can give you dessert, but the main course is still up to you.”

The official added that in today’s innovation-driven knowledge economy, raising children requires substantial resources and commitment.

“If the incentives are too generous, people who don’t want children, or aren’t ready for them, may have them anyway. If they then fail to raise them properly, would that be a good thing?”

Experts: a good start, but not enough

HKFLU’s Lau Yuen-yee said the Hong Kong Policy Address’s support for childbirth on multiple fronts sent a clear, positive message and deserved recognition.

However, she said there were still areas where the details could be strengthened.

She cited economic factors as an example, saying the high cost of raising children deters many Hong Kong residents and leads them to abandon plans to have children altogether. The government could consider introducing a child-rearing allowance of HK$3,000 per quarter for every newborn until the child reaches the age of three.

Lau also said that Hong Kong women are becoming increasingly well educated, and many devote their younger years to their careers before marrying only in their 30s or 40s. The new Policy Address proposed increasing places for assisted reproduction services for women, but those over 40 are ineligible. This age limit should also be relaxed, she said.

Undoing ‘Two Is Enough’

Choi Sze-hang, a lecturer at the General Education Foundation Programme at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told Lianhe Zaobao that Hong Kong residents’ reluctance to have children is, to some extent, linked to the success of the government’s earlier family planning campaigns.

In 1975, the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong launched an advertisement, “Two Is Enough” (《两个就够晒数》), whose lyrics became deeply ingrained in the public consciousness and part of Hong Kong’s collective memory. Many people came to believe that two children were enough.

He noted that Lee Lai-shan, Hong Kong’s first Olympic gold medallist, appeared in a 2006 bank advertisement which claimed it cost HK$4 million to raise a child.

“At the time, a 500 square feet flat in Hong Kong cost between HK$1.5 million and HK$2.5 million. The advertisement had a major impact, leading many Hong Kong residents to believe that the cost of raising a child was no less than that of buying a home.”

Choi said that measures proposed in the new Policy Address, such as newborn bonuses and stamp duty rebates for families with newborns buying homes, could encourage Hong Kong residents to have children.

But to persuade people to have more children, he said, changing attitudes mattered more.

“This work is particularly urgent as we approach the 2030s, when the emergence of artificial intelligence has made robotic companions a real possibility.”

Choi believes the Hong Kong government should start planning publicity campaigns that present children as a source of happiness.

“The authorities could work with the Family Planning Association, banks, and the music and entertainment industries to produce adverts, pop songs, and even TV dramas about the joys of parenthood, quietly instilling the idea that children bring happiness.”

This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “港府11招鼓励生育 港人反应不一”.

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