Hong Kong Foster Care Statistics 2025: Shortage, Waiting Lists, and Residential Care

The numbers that define Hong Kong's foster care system in 2025 tell a story of genuine structural pressure. There are more children needing placement than there are families registered to receive them. The families that are registered are ageing out of the system faster than they are being replaced. And a major legal change — mandatory reporting of child abuse — is expected to push more children into the system before the shortfall has been addressed.

This post sets out the key statistics, what they mean, and what the current trajectory looks like.

Registered Foster Families: Five-Year Trend

The growth from 978 to 1,112 over 2024–2025 reflects the impact of the April 2024 incentive increase, which nearly doubled the monthly allowance for ordinary foster carers, and the January 2024 "One-plus-One" collaborative scheme, which opened the door to two-household foster arrangements.

Despite this growth, 1,112 families is still short of what the system needs. The benchmark is not just the number of children currently being served — it is the capacity required when mandatory reporting (Cap. 650, effective January 2026) increases the volume of children identified and entering the system.

Children in Care: Current Numbers

As of late 2025, approximately 950 children are receiving foster care services in Hong Kong. This figure has tracked broadly with the number of registered families, though the relationship is not one-to-one — some families care for more than one child, and some approved families are between placements.

The dip in 2022–23 and 2023–24 reflected the post-COVID period when recruitment stalled and some families exited the register. The recovery since 2024 is meaningful but not yet sufficient.

The Matching Waitlist: 234 Children

The matching waitlist — children identified as needing foster placement but not yet placed — stands at 234. This is down from 314 in 2021–22, which represents genuine progress. But it also represents 234 children currently in institutional or temporary care settings who would benefit from family-based placement and are not receiving it.

The waitlist falls when more families register or when matched placements are made. It rises when new children enter the system faster than families are available. Given that the January 2026 mandatory reporting regime is expected to identify more at-risk children earlier — particularly through schools and hospitals — the pressure on the waitlist is likely to increase before it decreases.

The Ageing Foster Parent Problem

The most significant structural challenge in Hong Kong's foster care system is not the raw number of families — it is their age profile. As of 2025, over 52% of registered foster parents are aged 60 or above. In 2021, that figure was 41.2%.

The pace of ageing in the foster parent pool is accelerating. Older carers are reaching the point where they cannot take on new placements — particularly infants or children with high physical care needs — and are exiting the register without younger families filling their place.

The 25-to-45 age bracket, which should represent the core of a sustainable foster family pool, is significantly underrepresented. Research points to two drivers: the post-2020 emigration wave that removed many younger, educated middle-class families from the city, and the information and confidence barrier that prevents families who could foster from starting the application.

This is the underlying reason why the government's April 2024 incentive increase, the One-plus-One scheme, and the broader recruitment push are targeted specifically at younger families. The system needs carers who can commit to placements for the next 10 to 20 years, not the next 3 to 5.

Average Length of Stay

The average length of stay in foster care across all placement types is currently 33.69 months — approximately two years and nine months. This average masks significant variation:

• Emergency placements are capped at 6 weeks
• Some ordinary placements resolve in 3 to 6 months when birth family reunification proceeds quickly
• Long-term and permanent placements extend to many years or until adulthood

The long average stay reflects the reality that many children in the system face complex family situations that do not resolve quickly. Birth family reunification requires demonstrable improvement in the safety and stability of the home — a process that can take years of assessment and intervention.

Residential Care: Small Group Homes and Children's Homes

Not all children in Hong Kong's child welfare system are in foster care. A significant number are in residential care settings: Children's Homes, Residential Child Care Centres (RCCCs), and Small Group Homes (SGHs).

Small Group Homes are designed as a family-like alternative to large institutional care. They are typically located in public housing estates and accommodate around eight children under the care of a resident houseparent. They are run by NGOs including The Salvation Army and Caritas Hong Kong, and are targeted at children who may not thrive in a standard family foster setting — large sibling groups, children with significant behavioural needs, or those awaiting long-term placement decisions.

The government has added 228 additional Residential Child Care Services places since 2017, reflecting the increase in identified child protection cases — up approximately 60% from 2020 to 2024. This expansion of residential capacity has run in parallel with the push to grow family-based foster care. The policy direction is explicitly toward de-institutionalization: family-based care is the preferred outcome; residential care is the fallback.

What Mandatory Reporting Means for These Numbers

The Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Ordinance (Cap. 650) came into effect on 20 January 2026. It creates a statutory duty for 25 categories of professionals — teachers, doctors, nurses, social workers, police officers — to report suspected serious child abuse.

The anticipation within the SWD is that this will increase the flow of children into the child protection system as cases that might previously have gone unreported are now captured earlier. How many additional children this will mean is difficult to predict precisely, but the government's own response — doubling incentive payments, launching One-plus-One, accelerating recruitment — signals that a significant increase is expected.

The 234-child waiting list and the 52%-over-60 age profile are the two numbers that best summarise where the system stands as it prepares for that increase. The supply of foster families is growing but not fast enough, and the age of existing carers means natural attrition will erode the register faster than new registrations are replacing it.

What This Means If You Are Considering Fostering

The practical implication of these statistics is straightforward: the system needs families now, and that need is going to intensify. The financial support — HKD 12,102 incentive plus HKD 6,916 maintenance grant per ordinary placement, more for emergency or SEN children — is the highest it has ever been. The collaborative One-plus-One option removes the structural barrier that previously made fostering impractical for working families.

If you have been thinking about fostering but have not started the application, the window between now and the expected demand surge from mandatory reporting is the time to move. The application process takes 4 to 6 months — starting today means you could be registered before the waitlist grows.

The Hong Kong Foster Care Guide covers the full application process, the current allowance structure, which NGO to approach, and what the home study and background checks actually involve — all in one document, without requiring you to piece it together from the SWD's fragmented PDF library.

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