HONG KONG—Hong Kong’s government says its population has shrunk for a second year as anti-virus controls hampered the inflow of new workers and births declined, but it made no mention of an exodus of residents following a clampdown on a pro-democracy movement.
The population as of mid-2022 declined by 1.6 percent from a year earlier to 7,291,600, the Census & Statistics Department announced Thursday. It said there was a net outflow of 113,200 residents while only 18,300 new residents arrived.
The announcement gave no indication how many thousands of people might have left due to the clampdown and a national security law that chilled free speech and left lawyers and business consultants uneasy about what they were allowed to say to clients….