Macao saw its resident population increased to 538,000 at the end of 2007, representing an annual growth rate of 4.7 percent over a year ago, according to figures released Thursday by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) of China's Macao Special Administrative Region.

The DSEC figures showed that among the residents, the adult (aged 15 to 64) population accounted for a hefty 79.5 percent, while the elderly (aged 65 and above) and the youth (aged 0 to 14) accounted for 7.1 percent and 13.5 percent respectively.

For the whole of 2007, total number of live births in the region went up by 11.8 percent to 4,537 compared with 2006, which was the highest rise recorded since 2003 (The highest number of live births was recorded in 1988, which stood at 7,913), according to DSEC.

Meanwhile, local mortality cases dropped by 1.3 percent last year to 1,545 over 2006, and the top three underlying causes of death were "Neoplasms", "Diseases of circulatory system" and "Diseases of the respiratory system", said DSEC.

In addition, total number of legal immigrants from the Chinese Mainland reached 2,221 last year, while illegal immigrants surged by 45.2 percent over 2006 to 1,575, according to DSEC.

(Xinhua News Agency, March 28, 2008)