HKSAR Passport Issuance in 2026: Numbers Behind the Drop
Hong Kong issued 698,310 HKSAR passports in 2025, against 910,553 in 2024 — a fall of 212,243, or roughly 23%, according to the Immigration Department's official "Personal Documentation" page under its Facts and Statistics section, as of October 2026. That page, dated 16 March 2026, carries the most recent full-year figures available, so any question about "2026 passport numbers" is really a question about the 2025 calendar year published in 2026.
The same table shows the drop was not limited to passports. Identity card issuances fell from 984,738 in 2024 to 790,033 in 2025, and the number issued under the Territory-wide Identity Card Replacement Exercise collapsed from 13,340 to 111.
| Document | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| HKSAR passports issued | 910 553 | 698 310 | −212 243 (about −23%) |
| Identity cards issued | 984 738 | 790 033 | −194 705 (about −20%) |
| Identity cards issued under the Territory-wide Identity Card Replacement Exercise | 13 340 | 111 | −13 229 (about −99%) |
What do these figures actually count?
They count documents, not people. Every row in the table is an administrative tally of items the department issued during the calendar year, which includes first-time issuances, renewals and replacements. One person can appear in the count more than once across different years as their documents expire, get lost or need updating, and one person can also generate both a passport and an identity card entry in the same year.
This matters because readers often read the passport line as a proxy for something it does not measure. It is not a count of new permanent residents, not a count of people granted the right of abode, and not a count of people leaving or arriving. It is a production volume for a document that a large standing population renews on a cycle.
Why did the 2025 totals fall?
One part of the fall has a documented administrative cause: the replacement exercise. The department's footnote to the table states that the Territory-wide Identity Card Replacement Exercise concluded on 3 March 2023. Once a one-off, territory-wide replacement drive ends, the block of demand it generated disappears from the count. The 13,340 figure for 2024 and the 111 figure for 2025 are the tail end of that cycle, not a measure of ordinary card demand.
The passport decline has no such line-by-line explanation in the published table, and it would be wrong to attribute it to a single proven cause. What the shape of the numbers suggests — as editorial reading, not as an official finding — is a post-surge return to baseline. A period in which a large share of the population is renewing identity cards is also a period in which many people refresh travel documents around the same time; when that wave passes, the annual count settles lower. Replacement cycles also bunch: people who obtained documents in a heavy year tend to come back in the same later year, which produces peaks and troughs that have little to do with migration.
What happened with the replacement exercise?
The exercise itself ended on 3 March 2023, per the department's note. The residual service did not vanish immediately: the On-site Identity Card Replacement Service continued to provide on-site replacement and delivery of new smart identity cards up to the first quarter of 2025, for eligible residents of residential care homes for the elderly and for persons with disabilities who had not yet replaced their cards.
That is why the 2025 figure is 111 rather than zero. It reflects a narrow, facility-based service operating for part of a single quarter, serving a population the department defines by residence in care homes — a very different thing from the territory-wide drive that produced most of the 2024 figure.
Does a fall in issuances mean fewer permanent residents?
No. The published counts do not distinguish between an existing permanent resident renewing an expiring passport and any other issuance category, so they cannot be used to infer a change in the size of the permanent resident population or in the number of people taking up a new status.
The same caution applies to identity cards. First-time cards for newly arrived residents, replacement cards and cards issued under a special exercise all land in one number. A reader who wants to know how many people hold a status needs a statistic about statuses; a count of cards issued in a year is not that statistic.
Why are year-on-year swings normal?
Document issuance is driven by administrative calendars more than by life events. Four mechanisms produce most of the movement:
- Cut-off dates. A scheme with a deadline, such as the replacement exercise ending on 3 March 2023, creates a cliff: demand that would otherwise be spread over years is pulled forward and then stops.
- Renewal cohorts. People who obtained documents during a surge renew together later, so heavy years echo.
- Capacity and scheduling. Issuance is recorded when the document is issued, not when the application was made, so processing throughput can shift counts between adjacent years.
- Underlying registration volumes. The same page shows births registration falling from 36,767 to 31,714 and marriage registration from 44,587 to 42,289 between the two years, while deaths registration moved only slightly, from 52,366 to 51,750 — a reminder that several routine volumes moved in the same period.
None of these require a change in how many people hold Hong Kong permanent resident status.
What should applicants take from these numbers?
Very little at the individual level, and that is the useful conclusion. If an applicant needs a travel document by a certain date, what decides their case is the status of their own document and their own eligibility, not whether the annual total rose or fell. National totals carry no information about an individual's timeline.
Treat these counts as background for reading policy, not as a signal to act on. They are general reference only and not personalised advice; anything time-sensitive, including current arrangements and published requirements, remains subject to the department's latest official publication.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many HKSAR passports were issued in the latest published year?
698,310 were issued in 2025, according to the Immigration Department's "Personal Documentation" page as of October 2026. That is down from 910,553 in 2024. These are the most recent full-year figures published.
Do these figures cover applications made in 2026?
No. The published table covers full calendar years, with 2025 being the latest year shown on the page dated 16 March 2026. Applications submitted during 2026 will appear in a later publication, and the official latest publication governs.
Why did replacement-exercise identity cards fall to 111?
Because the Territory-wide Identity Card Replacement Exercise concluded on 3 March 2023. Only the On-site Identity Card Replacement Service remained, running up to the first quarter of 2025 for eligible care home residents who had not yet replaced their cards.
Does the passport decline mean fewer people are becoming permanent residents?
No. The count covers issuances, including renewals and replacements, and does not break out applications by status. It cannot be used to measure grants of permanent residence or the right of abode.
Do the published numbers include renewals?
The table reports documents issued without separating first-time issuances from renewals or replacements. Any reading that treats the total as a count of new applicants will misread it.
Can I use these totals to estimate how long my application will take?
No. The figures are annual issuance volumes and contain no information about processing times, approval rates or individual cases. Only the department's current published arrangements are relevant to timing.