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4.  Divorce and Family



                                             Breakdown









                                             4.1 Public Housing and Divorce


                                                    It may be surprising to know that the crude divorce rate in Hong
                                             Kong was 3.1 per 1,000 people in 2013, nearly three times higher than that in
                                             1991. This places Hong Kong in the top ten in the world in divorce, ahead of
                                             China, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea, but lower than the United States
                                             and top-placed Belarus (see Figure 3)



                                             Figure 3. Divorce rates of selected economies per 1,000 people, 2013




























                                              Note      :  Data for China pertains to 2012.
                                              Sources:    Census and Statistics Department, United Nations, and National Centre
                                                      for Health Statistics.

                                                    Figure 4 shows that the number of divorces in Hong Kong has
                                             been rising since 2001. In 2014, there were about 20,019 divorces, 37,217
                                             marriages, and 19,197 remarriages.


                                                    What explains the rise in divorce? The Report contends that a
                                             possible explanation is rooted in the PRH allocation criteria which may
                                             possess incentives for unhappy couples to initiate divorce. The following
                                             sub-chapter will lay out the evidence by providing a demographic analysis
                                             of the people residing in PRH.


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