Demographic Statistics for 2008

Information released by the Statistics and Census Service indicated that the population of Macao was estimated at 549,200 as at 31 December 2008, down by 8,100 from end-September, on account of a substantial decrease of non-resident workers in the fourth quarter. The rate of population growth for 2008 was 2.0%, representing an increase of 11,100 year-on-year. As regard the gender ratio, 50.9% were female and 49.1% were male. In terms of age distribution, the youth population (aged 0-14) accounted for 12.8%, the adult population (aged 15-64) and the elderly population (aged 65 and over) shared 80.0% and 7.2% respectively. In the fourth quarter of 2008, there are 1,327 live births and 441 mortality cases. For the whole year of 2008, total number of live births went up by 4.0% year-on-year to 4,717 and mortality cases increased by 13.7% to 1,756. The top three underlying causes of death were “Neoplasms”, “Diseases of the Circulatory System” and “Diseases of the Respiratory System”. Number of Notifiable Disease was 1,136 cases in the fourth quarter of 2008, bringing the annual total to 3,079 cases, which consisted mainly of “Varicella (chickenpox)” (909 cases), “Enterovirus Infection” (804 cases) and “Tuberculosis of Lung” (420 cases). Regarding marriage registration, 607 cases were recorded in the fourth quarter, with the annual total rising significantly by 35.7% over 2007 to 2,778 cases. In 2008, the median age of first marriage was 25.8 for female and 28.0 for male. In addition, 429 Chinese immigrants with One-way Exit Permit moved to Macao in the fourth quarter, bringing the annual total to 2,280, with 67.8% coming from the Guangdong Province. Meanwhile, 431 illegal immigrants were repatriated in the fourth quarter and the total number for 2008 decreased by 9.6% year-on-year to 1,424. The end-year number of non-resident workers was 92,161 and the total number of persons authorized to reside in Macao was 7,917 in 2008, up by 6,954 and 1,802 year-on-year respectively. In 2008, total number of non-institutionalized households rose by 3.6% from 2007 to 177,000 households.