Hong Kong has among the world’s highest life expectancy and a long history of immigration from Mainland China/Macao/Taiwan (MMT). Evidence remains limited on how nativity differences (HK-born vs MMT-born) in longevity vary across ages and over time, how length of stay in Hong Kong (LOS) shapes heterogeneity within migrants, and which ages and causes of death account for observed gaps. Using death registration and population denominators from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department (C&SD), we constructed sex-and nativity-specific single-age-period life tables for 2006, 2011, 2016, and 2021, and estimated life expectancy at age 15 (e₁₅). We calculated cause-specific life years lost (LYL) and age- and cause-specific decompositions to the contributions to nativity differences in e₁₅. Within MMT-born residents, we repeated the analysis by comparing LOS <10 years with LOS ≥10 years. Hong Kong’s longevity advantage is not evenly shared across nativity groups. The MMT-born disadvantage is best understood not as a generalized adult mortality deficit but as a late-life chronic disease inequality. These findings support a migration-sensitive ageing policy, stronger chronic disease prevention, cancer detection, respiratory and cardiovascular care, and continuity of care for older migrants.

Biography Vladimir Canudas-Romo is known for his expertise in mathematical demography and his research on the longevity revolution. He has made contributions to the demographic debates on alternative measures of longevity and the development of methods that allow a better understanding of these issues. He has received funding for his work from the European Research Council, the USA insurance company AIG, and the Australian Research Council. He has advised on mortality-analysis for the Social Security Administration in the USA, the World Bank and the Australian Government Actuary at Treasury. Vladimir is Professor at the School of Demography at ANU.