Hong Kong’s population recorded a slight increase in the first six months of the year to over 7.53 million people amid an inflow of global talent, according to official data released on Thursday.

The city’s population rose to 7,531,800 as of mid-2024, or an increase of 0.1 percent from the end of 2023, according to data from the Census and Statistics Department.

A Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government spokesperson said that due to various measures on attracting talent and labor importation, the SAR saw a sizable inflow of persons from the Chinese mainland and other places around the world in the first half of 2024.

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From mid-2023 to mid-2024, the city saw a net inflow of 13,800 Hong Kong residents, with an inflow of 44,000 One-way Permit holders and a net outflow of 30,200 other Hong Kong residents, according to the C&SD.

During the same period, a natural decrease of 18,100 was recorded, with 34,400 births and 52,400 deaths, the department added.

The spokesperson said that, following the full resumption of normal travel in early 2023, quite a number of Hong Kong residents who used to live abroad successively returned to the SAR for short durations.

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As a result, the city population recorded a notable increase as at mid-2023 as compared to a year earlier, the spokesperson said.

The situation then went back to normal gradually in the later part of 2023, resulting in “a slight decline in the population as at end-2023 and mid-2024 as compared to mid-2023,” the spokesperson added.