HONG KONG—Hong Kong’s government announced Thursday that the territory’s population dropped for a third straight year as deaths rose during the pandemic and anti-virus measures reduced the number of arriving workers, but did not mention an exodus of residents sparked by a clampdown of the pro-democracy movement.
The city’s population declined 0.9 percent to 7.3 million at the end of 2022 from a year earlier, according to provisional data released by the Census and Statistics Department. It said there was a net outflow of 60,000 residents, with 21,200 new residents arriving.
For much of the pandemic, Hong Kong followed mainland China’s stringent “zero COVID” strategy, deterring professionals from moving into the international financial hub. Its population decline has been exacerbated by a growing number of young professionals leaving for Britain, the United States, and other countries in response to the erosion of Hong Kong’s Western-style civil liberties after a harsh new National Security Law silenced or jailed dissidents….