Hong Kong's French Population Surges
By wchung | 16 May, 2025

Hong Kong’s population of French expats has surged over 60% since 2006, fed by the SAR’s love of European luxury goods and a slowing French economy, according to the New York Times.

The French community in Hong Kong now numbers over 10,000. A similar phenomenon is seen in Singapore which, along with Hong Kong, has the highest standard of living among Asian cities, higher than all but New York and a few cities in western Europe. The French population in Singapore has doubled to over 9,200 since 2006.

Many of the new French arrivals work for European firms meeting a booming demand for luxury goods, both by wealthy locals and the millions of tourists from China who do their luxury shopping in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The new French influx is visible at the city’s new French restaurants. Pastis, a cozy bistro that became a favorite after opening in Central in 2009, now has two new competitors. French can be heard increasingly frequently on Hong Kong streets. And shoppers who love authenticity and are willing to pay handsomely for it are increasingly greeted by French shopkeepers, merchants and gallery owners.

It will take some time before Hong Kong’s French community rivals the size of the English-speaking expat population, however. As a vestige of Hong Kong’s colonial era and an incident to its vibrant business ties with Britain, Britons still outnumber French by a multiple of three. Most of these are British-born or educated Chinese, without even counting the estimated 3 million Hong Kongers who are legally considered British Nationals (Overseas) though they don’t have the right to live in Britain itself.

Americans are even more numerous, with an expat population of over 100,000. During the past quarter century the American expat population has become mostly Chinese Americans as their linguistic skills and cultural affinity have made them natural selections as entrepreneurs and executives of US businesses using Hong Kong as a base from which to access China’s suppliers and consumers.

The new French expats are often shocked by the high rents in Hong Kong which average about twice that of Paris. But that’s more than made up by the opportunity to profit from an economy fed by the spillover from China’s rise as the world’s industrial center and the world’s largest consumer market.