An ever-growing population: 30,000 more last year

Some 28,700 more people lived and worked in Macau at the end of last year, bringing the total population to 636,200 for the whole of 2014.
Official numbers released yesterday by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) show that the latest figures represent a 4.7 per cent increase in the population here.
Only five years ago, the total Macau population was 540,600. Today’s population represents a 17.7 per cent increase since 2010. In the last quarter of 2014, the number of non-resident workers totalled 170,346, an increase of 4.6 per cent compared to the previous quarter, and representing 26.8 per cent of the overall Macau population.
In addition, some 2,278 individuals were granted the right of abode in 2014. This figure was up 11 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.
The number of individuals whose right of abode was annulled dropped 34.4 per cent from the third to fourth quarters of 2014 to 1,273.
There were also fewer Chinese immigrants living and working in Macau at the end of 2014. Data from the Statistics and Census Service show that number totalled 5,889, dropping 38.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter.
Live births increased by 5.8 per cent in the fourth quarter to total 7,360 for the whole of 2014, with girls topping the growth chart with a 6.9 per cent increase to 3,510, while the number of baby boys increased by 4.9 per cent to 3,850.
Macau’s mortality rate rose by 14.6 per cent to 1,939 at the end of 2014. While the majority of deaths recorded were male, accounting for 1,086, up 13.5 per cent, but it was the females who registered the biggest percentage increase of 16.1 per cent, totalling 853.
The majority of reported deaths were caused by neoplasms, accounting for 679 of the total and up by 15.1 per cent from the previous quarter, followed by diseases related to the circulatory system, which accounted for 467 of total deaths and increased the most by 40.7 per cent. The number of deaths caused by diseases of the respiratory system, however, increased by 9.2 per cent from a quarter earlier to 325 for the whole of last year.
Meanwhile, a total of 4,085 people tied the knot between January and December 2014, down by 68 marriages from a year earlier. Of these, men embarking upon their first marriage increased by 12.7 per cent from the third quarter to a total of 3,510, while the number of women who married for the first time totalled 3,621, up 10 per cent in the same period.
The number of divorces, however, rose by 136 to a total of 1,308 by the end of last year.