Geographical Location
The Macao Special Administrative Region (MSAR) is a part of China’s territory. It is located on the Southeast coast of China to the west of the Pearl River Delta.  Bordering on Guangdong Province, it locates 60km from Hong Kong and 145km from the city of Guangzhou. Local time is eight hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.

Area
Due to land reclamation along its coastline, Macao has grown in land area from 10.28km2 in the 19th century to 27.3km2  today, which is equal to one-fortieth of Hong Kong and one twenty-third of Singapore.  Macao consists of the Macao peninsula and the two islands of Taipa and Coloane.  Three bridges, Nobre de Carvalho Bridge, Friendship Bridge (Ponte da Amizade) and Sai Van Bridge, link the peninsula to Taipa, while the two islands are inked by the six-lane 2.2km Taipa-Coloane Causeway.

Population
The population of Macao was estimated to be 482,000 as in September 2005.  Population density is over 17,000/km2, and the northern part of the peninsula is one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

Macao’s population has undergone rapid demographic growth in the last two decades, increasing at an annual rate of around 4%.  There is also an impressive flow of people in and out of the territory, with 25 million entries and exits recorded annually.

As in 2004, Macao’s population comprise 52% female, 17.1% of Macao residents are under 15 years old and 74.76% are aged between 15 and 64. Those aged 65 years and older accounts for 8.12% of the population.  Average life span for both sexes is over 78 years old.

The 2001 census puts Macao’s population at 435,000, 95% of Chinese nationality, 2%  Portuguese and 1% Filipinos.

Chinese and Portuguese are the official languages in Macao, and more than 97% of the people speak Chinese.  Portuguese is spoken by about 0.7% and the remainder speak English, Filipino and other languages.

More than 80% of Macao’s population have been living in the territory for more than 10 years, 45% of the population were born in Macao and another 45% were born in the Mainland, while less than 10% of residents are from other regions.

Climate
Macao’s climate is warm and humid with a fairly wide variation in temperature over the year.  From June to September, the temperature can rise to over 30ºC while it can drop to less than 10ºC from November to February.  The average temperature seldom falls below 14ºC.  Macao’s weather is also influenced by tropical cyclones from the South China Sea and North Western Pacific Ocean during the typhoon season between May and September.