Hong Kong - The shortage of men in Hong Kong is apparently deepening, with the latest government statistics showing that there were only 904 men for every 1,000 women in the city, a media report said Friday.

This continued a trend that began in 1996, when women first started to outnumber men, the South China Morning Post said. In 2006, there were 912 men for every 1,000 women, compared with 956 men for every 1,000 women in 2001.

The government's latest edition of "Women and Men in Hong Kong - key statistics," showed 3,287,400 men and 3,638,500 women last year in Hong Kong.

The figures reveal that the worst ages for gender imbalance were between 35 and 39, where last year there were 733 men for every 1,000 women, compared with 749 men for every 1,000 women in 2006.

Despite the imbalance and a seeming oversupply of women, the number of Hong Kong men marrying women from mainland China increased from 15,776 in 1986 to 21,888 in 2007, according to the report.

By comparison just, 4,315 Hong Kong women married men from China last year.

The report said that higher education and longer working hours have led to an increase in the median age when people first marry.

The study said the median first-time marriage age for women was 28.3 last year, compared to 23.9 in 1981, while for men the median age was 31.2 years last year and 27 years in 1981.

Commenting on the results of the report, Shiu Ka-chun, a lecturer at the Baptist University's department of social work, said that the Hong Kong government should carry out research to assess the social, economic and political impacts of the shortage of men. (dpa)