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The special administrative region of Hong Kong is a small nation like area located in
China. It is as different from China as one could imagen. It is among one of the most advanced
and developed nations in the world. Incredibly low unemployment has created a very
comfortable standard of living. USA Today ranks Hong Kong at number 18, just one below The
United States, in quality of life. (USA Today) Hong Kong is a highly traveled country by tourists
with nearly 60 million people traveling to the technology and manufacturing hub in Asia. One of
the few qualities that is holding Hong Kong back from being a world leader in terms of socio-
economic functions is that it has an incredibly low number of physicians per capita at just 0.3 per
10,000 inhabitants. By nearly every metric Hong Kong has continued to grow and better itself as
a nation and a group of citizens, as population has risen so has life expectancy. During the 90’s
the country experienced a sharp drop in school enrollment, however since 2000 that drop has
rebounded and continues to rise. As with many heavily industrialized nations Hong Kong has
struggled to come to terms with their CO2 emissions and the role that it plays with international
trade. Air quality is notoriously bad in China and the surrounding area, however Hong Kong has
accepted the emission goals set by the C40 summit group, while they fell an embarrassingly 78%
short of the goals, they are taking steps to reduce their emissions. By taking these steps I believe
that the global community will applaud the honest attempts no matter how futile the results are.
The combination of all of these social factors leads me to believe that there will be little to no
social issues that will impeded the economic growth of Hong Kong.
While its parent country China is a socialist market economy Hong Kong is considered to
be the freest economy in the world being “ranked #1 with a 90.2 out of 100”. (Heritage) This
freedom has led to steady growth in the country’s GDP topping at over 380 Billion dollars. At
380 billion dollars Hong Kong ranks at just 34th worldwide. However, over the last decade Hong
Kong’s per capita GDP has exploded moving it into 15th highest GDP per capita, putting it well
above other global economies such as the United Kingdom, France and Japan. The growth surge
that Hong Kong has experienced has led to incredibly low unemployment of less than three
percent with an underemployment rate at less than a single percent, both of which are 20 year
lows. Many analysts believe that Hong Kong’s economic growth will level out at around three
percent per year, with many of them fearing that a trade war between the United States and
China will led to “dampened activity” for Hong Kong’s exports. (Bloomberg) Once trade
tensions inevitably calm between the United States and China and an agreement is reached
between the two world leaders, outlook for Hong Kong economic growth should improve. With
the vast majority of Hong Kong’s relying on exporting manufactured goods to the rest of the
world, its reliance on its own internal economic policies being strong and supportive of
