Place comparison

Macao compared with Hong Kong: area, population and density

Macao occupies about three per cent of Hong Kong’s land with about nine per cent of its residents, giving it roughly three times Hong Kong’s average density.

Place A Grouped by country or region Place B Grouped by country or region

Equal-area outline comparison

Outlines are centered and scaled by official land area; position does not show geographic location.

Area

Population

Population density

Area data date

Population data date

The detailed guide below compares Macao with Hong Kong. Use the selector above to explore any other pair.

Direct answer

How different are Macao and Hong Kong?

Macao covers 33.4 km²; Macao's area is about 3% of Hong Kong's. Its reported population is 686,500; Macao's population is about 9.1% of Hong Kong's. By average density, Macao's population density is 3.04 times Hong Kong's.

Area difference

Macao's area is about 3% of Hong Kong's 33.4 km² · 1,114.6 km²

Population difference

Macao's population is about 9.1% of Hong Kong's 686,500 · 7,534,200

Density difference

Macao's population density is 3.04 times Hong Kong's 20,553.9 /km² · 6,759.7 /km²

On a familiar scale

Macao ≈ the size of Magong City 49 m² of land per resident
Hong Kong ≈ the size of Changhua County 148 m² of land per resident

Reference scales come from Department of Household Registration, Ministry of the Interior: Land area, households and population density by township and district (year-end 2025) , as of 2025-12-31.

How to read it

Hong Kong is often called extremely dense. On a territory-wide average, Macao is denser still, by a wide margin.

Geography and shape

Macao is a peninsula plus two former islands now joined by reclaimed land, small enough to cross on foot in an afternoon. Hong Kong is more than thirty times larger and includes country parks, reservoirs and outlying islands. Almost all of Macao’s land is in active use, which is why its average density sits so much closer to its lived density than Hong Kong’s does.

Population context

Macao holds a small fraction of Hong Kong’s residents, but on a far smaller fraction of its land, which is what produces the multiple. Its population also includes non-resident workers and students living there, a substantial group for an economy of this shape.

Boundaries and definitions

Macao’s area is the sum of seven official components including the Cotai reclamation, two new urban zones and the port area on the bridge island. The University of Macau’s Hengqin campus is listed separately in the same official table and is not included, nor is the sea area assigned to the region. Both Macao figures share a 30 June 2026 reference date. The outline omits the newest reclaimed zones.

Macao: Total land area of the Macao Special Administrative Region, the sum of seven official components: Macao Peninsula 9.4, Taipa 7.9, Coloane 7.6, the Cotai reclamation 6.1, New Urban Zone A 1.4, New Urban Zone C 0.3 and the Macao port area on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge island 0.7. The University of Macau's Hengqin campus (1.0 km²) is a separate column in the same official table and is not included, nor is the 85 km² of sea area assigned to the region. Population is the Statistics and Census Service estimate of usual residents, which includes non-resident workers and students. Both figures share a 30 June 2026 reference point. The outline omits the newest reclaimed zones, so it should be read as a silhouette rather than a current coastline.

Hong Kong: Year-end population and total land area of the Hong Kong SAR.

In-depth guide

How should Macao and Hong Kong be understood in context?

Hong Kong is the place usually named when extreme density is discussed, yet on a territory-wide average Macao is denser still by a wide margin. The reason has less to do with crowding than with what each boundary happens to contain.

Why the denser place is the one not usually named

Hong Kong is widely described as extremely dense, and its urban districts are. Averaged across the whole territory, though, the result is pulled down by a large share of land that carries no settlement at all. Macao, at 33.4 km² with 686,500 residents, has almost none of that land to dilute it.

So Macao’s average sits close to its lived density while Hong Kong’s sits well below its own. Comparing the two averages is arithmetically sound but compares two numbers that behave differently. Saying that plainly is more useful than presenting the gap as a simple statement about crowding.

Almost all of Macao is in active use

Macao is a peninsula plus two former islands now joined by reclaimed land, small enough to cross on foot in an afternoon. Nearly every part of it is built, paved or otherwise in service. There is very little inside the boundary that the average has to carry as empty ground.

Hong Kong’s 1,114.57 km² holds country parks, reservoirs and protected countryside inside the same line as its densest housing. That is a structural difference in what the two boundaries enclose, not a counting error on either side. It is the whole explanation for the gap between the two averages.

What the Macao area figure is made of

Macao’s area is the sum of seven official components, reclamation included. It excludes the University of Macau’s Hengqin campus, which is administered by Macao but listed separately in the same official table. It also excludes the sea area assigned to the region.

The previous year’s published figure was 33.3 km², so the total does move as reclamation is recorded. An undated Macao area therefore goes stale, in the same way a Singapore one does. Record the reference date whenever the number is reused.

Questions people ask

About this geographic comparison

How much smaller is Macao than Hong Kong?

Macao is a few per cent of Hong Kong’s land area. The exact current share is calculated above from the two official figures.

Is Macao the densest place in the world?

This page does not rank the world. It reports that Macao’s territory-wide average density is about three times Hong Kong’s, calculated from the two official figures shown.

Does the area include the University of Macau campus?

No. The campus is administered by Macao but is listed as a separate column in the official area table, so it sits outside the figure used here.

Sources

Outline data:

Natural Earth · Public domain