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Alice Wu

Hong Kong hit a record low in births last year despite a range of government incentives, including a HK$20,000 (US$2,560) baby cash bonus for new parents launched in 2023. Just 31,714 babies were born last year.
This might have come as a surprise for the authorities, which had projected a rise to 39,000 births.
So was the baby bonus worth the try? Yes, if we can draw insight from the experience.
To be fair, it wasn’t the only thing the government had done to encourage babies. It rolled out tax breaks for families with newborns, shortened the wait for public housing for them and gave them priority for subsidised flats.
Recognising that women, now better educated and more career-minded, are pushing childbearing till later, the government also increased service quotas for in vitro fertilisation in public hospitals. It’s a race against time for both aspiring mothers and the government, but policies – like encouraging IVF – need more time to come to fruition.
Couples consistently report that the main factor is the financial burden of raising children in this city. But that’s not all – it’s also about whether they feel Hong Kong offers a suitable environment.


Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai, chair of population health at the University of Hong Kong’s Department of Social Work and Social Administration, said as much: “Some people tend not to have babies because they think Hong Kong is not a suitable place to raise children, whereas they might consider having them after they leave the city.”
For years, population experts have talked about the need for the government to address the fundamental reasons behind people’s child-free choice.
So it was reckless of Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin to categorically dismiss the notion that education policies have an impact: “If you say it is our education system that causes people not to have babies, I do not think there is evidence.”
She went as far as to say that Hong Kong’s education policies encouraged rather than discouraged births. An examination of her reasoning may yield an insight into why the government’s efforts have failed so far.
Choi said: “Over 90 per cent of kindergartens are free today, [compared with when] I had to pay tuition fees to raise my son when he was young. And now we have 12 years of education in primary and secondary schools. We are charging only about HK$40,000 per year at university.”


Her comments suggest that the authorities have misread the problem.
It’s not just about the money. Free education is great but look at the trend of families shunning local schools for non-traditional education settings and other, often more expensive, options, and it’s clear that money is not the only factor. Those who can afford it would put their children in non-local schools.
The number of students enrolled in Hong Kong’s international schools reached an 11-year high in 2024 – an 18 per cent increase from 2013, against a 12 per cent drop for government and aided schools. Government data also showed that at international schools, Hong Kong student numbers tripled between 2013 and 2023, while the share of non-local students dropped from 81 per cent to 65 per cent over the same period.
These numbers speak for themselves. The government needs to stop turning a blind eye to such “evidence”. Our education system is about more than its costs. Perhaps Choi needs to speak to couples who have gone through this city’s education system to find out how they weigh their experience of it when they consider staying child-free.


Without a doubt, the mental health pressures facing our youth are also a worry.
Choi has at least acknowledged the problem. At a session with lawmakers last year, she noted the adverse impact of children spending too much time online. So what will the government do to address poor mental health among youths? When pressed on whether she would be willing to introduce counsellors at schools, she said no.
It would seem that, to Choi, youth mental struggles were not really related to academic pressures in local schools, and low birth rates had little to do with our high-pressure, high-stakes exam-oriented education system.
Let’s not continue to oversimplify and dismiss the issues our next generations face. Couples considering parenthood face genuine anxieties. For Hong Kong, the education system is a factor. As long as our authorities pretend otherwise, there will be no solution.


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It’s not just the cost of raising children – would-be parents are also deterred by Hong Kong’s high-pressure education system


It’s not just the cost of raising children – would-be parents are also deterred by Hong Kong’s high-pressure education system.


Hong Kong population

Education in Hong Kong

Ageing society

Mental health

Paul Yip Siu-fai

Suicides in Hong Kong

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Hong Kong can’t raise its birth rate without easing education stress

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}It’s not just the cost of raising children – would-be parents are also deterred by Hong Kong’s high-pressure education system

It’s not just the cost of raising children – would-be parents are also deterred by Hong Kong’s high-pressure education system