Hong Kong  - Hong Kong's population reached 7 million for the first time after a surge in the city's notoriously low birth rate, officials said Tuesday.

The former British colony's population grew by 0.8 per cent in 2008 to reach 7,009,900 partly due to the highest number of births in 25 years, according to Hong Kong's Census and Statistics Department.

However, only 45,000 of the city's almost 80,000 births in 2008 were to native Hong Kong women, with many of the remainder born to mainland Chinese women who cross the border to give birth.

Social planners fear the influx of migrants giving birth in Hong Kong, made possible by a substantial easing of cross-border travel restrictions since 2003, will lead to strain on welfare services.

Native-born Hong Kong women have one of the lowest birth rates anywhere in the world, with each woman of child-bearing age giving birth to an average of less than one child.

Hong Kong's population has grown from just over 3 million in 1960 and the city's Beijing-appointed leader Donald Tsang has said he believed its optimal population would be around 10 million. (dpa)