Student population numbers by nationality and ethnic origin and spoken language
Dear Education Bureau,
According to reports, the EDB collects yearly from schools student information including their language spoken at home and ethnicity through school enrolment surveys and the Student Information Management System.
I am interested in such data concerning the student population in Hong Kong. Could you please make the following statistics available to me as required by the Code on Access to Information:
(1) The numbers of students currently studying in publicly-funded (i.e. public sector and DSS) and private (International and Private Independent) schools, respectively. And to be disaggregated by nationality
(2) The same data as (1), but disaggregated by ethnicity.
(3) Same as (1), but disaggregated by spoken language
For all numbers, it would be great if you could give me these numbers by year from 2025 and dating as far back as such records have been made. I would appreciate it if you could present them in a PDF or Excel file, not tabular form, since I cannot view it properly.
Furthermore, I understand that the EDB maintains an Ethnicity Code Table for the benefit of assisting schools in reporting student particulars to the Student Information Management System. Please also provide me with this table.
Thank you for your assistance and I look forward to your prompt response.
Yours faithfully,
James A. Wilson
Thank you for your e-mail. This message is an acknowledgement of receipt
of your e-mail. Your e-mail will be forwarded to the responsible officer
for processing/reply. (This message is generated by Auto Reply System)
Education Bureau Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 本局現確認收到你
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香港特別行政區 教育局謹覆
Dear Education Bureau,
It has been 11 days since the EDB acknowledged receipt of my request. According to 1.16 of the Code, information will be made available within ten days of receipt.
Please make available the information I have requested promptly in conformity with the Code.
Yours faithfully,
James A. Wilson
Thank you for your e-mail. This message is an acknowledgement of receipt
of your e-mail. Your e-mail will be forwarded to the responsible officer
for processing/reply. (This message is generated by Auto Reply System)
Education Bureau Hong Kong Special Administrative Region 本局現確認收到你
的電郵。你的電郵會轉至有關負責人處理/回覆。 (以上訊息由自動回覆系統發出)
香港特別行政區 教育局謹覆
Dear Mr James A. Wilson,
Code on Access to Information
Application No. 83/2026
I refer to your application under the Code on Access to Information (the
Code) received by the Education Bureau (EDB) on 5 April 2026.
Your request is now under processing. According to paragraph 1.16 of the
Code, we will inform you of the latest progress of the case separately on
or before 25 April 2026.
For enquiries relating to the Code, please contact the undersigned at 2892
6121.
Yours sincerely,
(Miss Leah CHAN)
for Secretary for Education
Dear Mr James A. Wilson,
Code on Access to Information
Application No. 83/2026
I refer to your application under the Code on Access to Information
received by the Education Bureau (EDB) on 5 April 2026.
For the requested items (1) - (3), please refer to the Annex.
[See attachment "Enrolment by nationality ethnicity and spoken language at
home.pdf"]
Besides, the Code Table on Ethnicity for schools’ reporting of student
information to the Student Information Management System of the Education
Bureau is as follows:
┌──────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Code Value│ Code Description │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ CHI │Chinese │
│ │ │
│ │(Including: Hanzu, Manzu, Mengguzu, Huizu, Zangzu and other│
│ │Chinese minorities) │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ PHL │Filipino │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ IDN │Indonesian │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ JPN │Japanese │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ KOR │Korean │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ THA │Thai │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ IND │Indian │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ PAK │Pakistani │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ BNG │Bangladeshi │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ SLK │Sri-Lankan │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ VNM │Vietnamese │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ NPL │Nepalese │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ MAL │Malay │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ TUR │Turk │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ZAS │Other Asian │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ZWH │White │
│ │ │
│ │(e.g. English, Australian, German, Portuguese) │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ZBK │Black │
│ │ │
│ │(e.g. Somali, Haitian, Jamaican) │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 999* │Other ethnicities not classified above │
│ │ │
│ │(e.g. Latin American, Egyptian, Moroccan) or mixed ethnicity │
├──────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ INA** │Information Not Available │
└──────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
* Only one Ethnicity code is required for each student. The Ethnicity
code for a student of mixed race may be indicated as “999” or the code
considered most appropriate by the parent/guardian/student concerned.
** If the information on the Ethnicity of a student is not available or
cannot be provided, it may be indicated as “INA”.
Yours sincerely,
(Miss Leah CHAN)
for Secretary for Education
From: Leah CHAN/EDB
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2026 5:15 PM
To: '[FOI #1572 email]'
<[FOI #1572 email]>
Subject: Code on Access to Information (Application No. 83/2026)
Dear Mr James A. Wilson,
Code on Access to Information
Application No. 83/2026
I refer to your application under the Code on Access to Information (the
Code) received by the Education Bureau (EDB) on 5 April 2026.
Your request is now under processing. According to paragraph 1.16 of the
Code, we will inform you of the latest progress of the case separately on
or before 25 April 2026.
For enquiries relating to the Code, please contact the undersigned at 2892
6121.
Yours sincerely,
(Miss Leah CHAN)
for Secretary for Education
Dear Miss Chan,
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
I recognise that the following information has been provided:
Student numbers by nationality of DSS, international and Private Independent schools
Student numbers by ethnicity of public sector and DSS schools
Student numbers by spoken language of public sector and DSS schools
However, I note that my request has yet to receive its full attention, that is:
Student numbers by nationality of public sector schools
Student numbers by ethnicity of international and Private Independent schools
Student numbers by spoken language of international and Private Independent schools
My apologies for not having made these details clear enough. Please make this available to me within the time frames provided for by the Code. I appreciate the help.
Yours sincerely,
J. A. Wilson
Dear Mr James A. Wilson,
Code on Access to Information
Application No. 83/2026
I refer to your follow-up enquiries under the Code on Access to
Information received by the Education Bureau (EDB) on 24 April 2026.
The statistics mentioned in the third paragraph of your follow-up email
are not available, as indicated in our earlier reply issued on 24 April
2026. Please refer to footnote (2) of all three tables at the Annex where
the requested numbers of students in other types of schools are not
available.
Yours sincerely,
(Miss Leah CHAN)
for Secretary for Education