Hong Kong Had a Total Population of 7,500 Inhabitants

Nowadays, Hong Kong is a bustling city with a population of 7,500,000 inhabitants. With a population density of 6,725 inhabitants per square kilometer, it is also one of the most densely populated territories in the world.

However, this was not always the case. In fact, it is only relatively recently that Hong Kong became an influential city. On January 26th, 1841, when the British took possession of Hong Kong Island—later officially ceded to Britain following their victory in the First Opium War and formalized in the Treaty of Nanking on August 29, 1842—the island was little more than a "barren rock," as then Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston described it.

Prior to the British arrival, numerous ethnic groups—among them the Punti, Hoklo, Tanka, and Hakka—were scattered across the territory in small villages. The Punti and Hoklo lived in the New Territories, while the Hakka and Tanka lived both in the New Territories and on Hong Kong Island.

When the British took possession of Hong Kong Island, an estimated 7,450 people lived there—mainly Tanka fishermen and Hakka charcoal burners. Since then, the population has increased a thousand-fold.