Geographical Location
Macau is located on the southeast coast of China, west of the mouth of the Pearl River. Bordering the Guangdong Province, the SAR lies 60 km from Hong Kong, 145 km from Guangzhou. Local time is eight hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.

Area
As a result of land reclamation along its coastline, Macau has been growing in size since the 19th century, from 2.78 km?to 23.8 km? including the Macau Peninsula and two islands - Taipa and Coloane. The Macau Peninsula borders Mainland China to the north. To the south, the two bridges - the Ponte Nobre de Carvalho and the Ponte da Amizade - link the peninsula to Taipa. Taipa and Coloane are connected by a 2.2 km, six-lane causeway.

Population
As of 31st December 1999, population of Macau stood at 437,455, an increase of nearly 7,000 over the previous year. Macau boasts a population density of over 18,000 inhabitants per square kilometre and the northern part of the region is one of the most densely populated urban areas in the world.

Over the last two decades the population of Macau has been growing rapidly, at a rate of nearly 4% per year. It is a highly mobile population. On average each day more than 20,000 visitors enter Macau via the Outer Harbour ferry terminal, while another 50,000 people get in and out of the Mainland via the Border Gate, totalling 25 million visitor arrivals per year.

Macau is an open society, consisting of residents from varied ethnic origins and cultures. 52.8% of the Macau population is female; 23.2% is under 14 years old, 69.1% is aged between 15 and 64 while 7.7% are over 65. Life expectancy for both sexes is over 75, the longest in Asia next to Japan.

Over 96% of the Macau residents speak Chinese as their first language while only 2% are native speakers of Portuguese. Cantonese is the dialect used by the vast majority of people in everyday life but Mandarin is also widely spoken. Fujianese is another Chinese dialect frequently heard in Macau.

Over 80% of the Macau people have lived in the territory for more than ten years. 45% were born in Macau; 45% were born in Mainland China while less than 10% are from other places.

Climate
Macau has a warm and humid climate, with a fairly wide variation in temperature over the year. Temperature can go up to over 30°C between June and September, and drop below 10°C between November and February. However, the average temperature seldom drops below 14°C. During the typhoon season Macau is often affected by tropical cyclones from the South Pacific Ocean.

In 1999 there were 120 rainy days in total, bringing a precipitation of 1,926mm, 105mm less than the average annual precipitation over the 30 years between 1961-1990. Two tropical cyclones, one tropical hurricane and five typhoons were recorded.