Life expectancy in Hong Kong increased in 2023 as the city recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, with cancer again becoming the leading cause of death in the territory, according to the Census and Statistics Department.

In a report titled "Women and Men in Hong Kong – Key Statistics (2024 Edition)" that was released on Monday, the department said that life expectancy for males in Hong Kong rose from 80.7 years in 2022 to 82.5 years last year, and from 86.8 years to 87.9 years for females.

ALSO READ: Life expectancy in HK dropped in 2022 amid COVID-19

This increase in life expectancy was accompanied by a notable drop in the number of deaths in the city from 63,692 in 2022 to 54,413 last year, according to the report.

At the end of 2023, there were 4,102,600 females and 3,425,300 males in Hong Kong, representing increases of 1.0 percent and 0.5 percent respectively compared with end‑2022.

The report said the major cause of death for Hong Kong residents in 2023 was cancer, or malignant neoplasms, replacing respiratory diseases which took the top spot during the pandemic.

ALSO READ: HK authorities to enhance support program for elderly

In 2023, the standardized mortality rates, or the number of registered deaths per 100,000 standard population, of malignant neoplasms for females and males were 65.5 and 102.7, respectively.

Substantial increase in cancer cases

The total number of new cancer cases in females was 19,519 in 2021, in what the report described as a "substantial increase" of 11.7 percent from 2020.

The three leading cancers for females in 2021 were breast cancer (5,565 new cases), lung cancer (2,485) and colorectal cancer (2,472), together accounting for 53.9 percent of all new cancer cases among females, according to the report.

It noted that the total number of new cancer cases among males also had a substantial increase of 13.4 percent from 2020 to 18,943 cases in 2021.

READ MORE: Survey: HK couples having less children, sex

The three leading cancers for males were lung cancer (3,493 new cases), colorectal cancer (3,427) and prostate cancer (3,038), together accounting for 52.6 percent of all new cancer cases for males, the report added.