Hong Kong has about 40 fewer kindergartens than a year ago as births sink to record lows and first-time mothers are older than ever.
The Education Bureau's online profile for the 2026/27 school year, released on Oct. 15, lists about 930 kindergartens, down from about 970 in last year's edition.
The South China Morning Post described the net loss as the largest on record. The bureau's profiles had shown the count falling by about 20 a year over the previous four school years.
The city had about 1,050 kindergartens in the 2021/22 school year, meaning about 120 have gone in five years, news site on.cc reported.
In a reply to the site, the bureau said 32 kindergartens ceased operating in the 2025/26 school year while nine new ones were registered. As of the end of September, two more were closing during or at the end of the current school year, one new kindergarten had registered and five had applied to register.
Among the closures is Kentville Kindergarten, a prestigious private school in Kowloon Tong, which cited low birth rates, the emigration of young families and staff retirements, SCMP reported.
Government-subsidized kindergartens rely on enrollment because their subsidies are tied to headcount, and some that offered only half-day classes have added full-day sessions to attract working parents, the newspaper said.
Children born in 2022, when Hong Kong recorded 32,500 births, the second-lowest annual total on record, started kindergarten in the 2025/26 school year.
After a rebound to 36,723 in 2024, births fell to 31,053 in 2025, the lowest since the Census and Statistics Department's series began in 1961. Provisional figures put births at 29,700 in the 12 months to mid-2026, the first time the figure has fallen below 30,000.
The city's population still rose 0.3% to 7,518,300 over that period, as a net inflow of 39,800 residents outweighed a natural decrease of 20,400, the department said.
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A child looks out of a tram window in Hong Kong. Illustration photo by Ian Taylor/Unsplash |
The median age of women having their first child reached 33.1 in 2025, up from 32.8 the year before and the highest since the department's series began in 1976. It was 29.3 in 2000.
The median age at first marriage rose to 31.3 for women and 32.9 for men in 2025, from 27.3 and 30 in 2000.
Tang Fei, the lawmaker representing the education sector, told on.cc the closures would be hard to stop while births keep falling.
He urged the government to review its criteria for approving new kindergartens, saying some in the sector had pointed out that new ones are still approved whenever new housing is completed, which can leave nearby schools already short of pupils facing heavy competition.
The bureau told the site that kindergartens are privately run, that their number naturally adjusts as the student population shrinks and that it has encouraged operators to plan early for pooling resources and merging schools. Since the 2024/25 school year it has made relocation subsidies a regular measure, encouraging kindergartens in aging districts to move to new development areas and those renting private premises to move to cheaper or government-owned ones.
Secretary for Education Choi Yuk-lin told the Legislative Council's education panel on Oct. 2 that kindergartens faced no wave of closures, since operators decide for themselves whether to open or close, on.cc reported.
Chief Executive John Lee announced 11 measures to encourage childbirth in his policy address on Sept. 16, including extending the HK$20,000 ($2,550) newborn cash incentive for three more years and raising it to HK$30,000 for second and subsequent children under a progressive scheme.
Lawmaker Judy Chan Kapui has urged the government to set up a high-ranking working group to coordinate policies on births, SCMP reported.
"If there is more coordination of the related policies, bureaus would not only think of their areas when devising their policies, but also care about the policy impact on births," she said.
Chan said younger generations already perceived that "not having children is the norm," and called for a citywide campaign to change that view.