Population Growth and Its Relationship With Resource Consumption: The Case of Macao SAR, China

Modern China Studies
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
Population Growth and its Relationship

with Resource Consumption:
The Case of Macao SAR, China
T. M. Lai
W. M. To
Macao Polytechnic Institute
Macao SAR, Peoples Republic of China
K. I. Ku
Institute for Tourism Studies
Macao SAR, Peoples Republic of China
Abstract Macao is the city with the highest gross domestic product
per capita in China. Under the one-country two-system arrangement,
Macao enjoys a high degree of freedom to pursue its economic growth
and the central government provides a supportive environment to
maintain Macaos political and social stability. Since the liberalization
of the gaming industry in 2002, Macao has transformed into the world
gaming center and the place for the meeting, incentive, convention and
exhibition (MICE) activities. There has been renewed growth in
Macaos population because of people migrating from Asia Pacific on
top of 2,000-plus newborns a year. Nevertheless, population growth and
economic growth pose chal-lenges to the government and business
sector. The paper is aimed at modeling Macaos population growth by
using a simple yet accurate logistic model. The paper also explores the
characteristics of Macaos economic growth and the relationship
Corresponding author: T. M. Lai, Email: tmlai@ipm.edu.mo Tel: +853 85996354
Population Growth and Resource in Macao 101
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
between population growth, economic growth, and resource consumption. Implications on environmental issues are discussed.
Key Words:Population Growth, Electricity Consumption, Water
Consumption, Land Resource, Envi-ronmental Influence
102
Population Growth and Resource in Macao
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
, ,
, ,
GDP
2002
2,000
Logistic
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
1.Introduction
Macao, a small city located at the southwest coast of the Pearl
River Delta, is the only city in China with legalized casino gaming. In
the past decade, its population has grown by 25.6 percent from 0.43
million in 2000 to 0.54 million in 2009. Concurrently Macao has
enjoyed an average annual GDP growth of 14 percent. It gross domestic
product (GDP) per capita increased from US$14,400 in 2000 to
US$38,950 in 2009, surpassing that of Hong Kong and Singapore.
However, population and economic growths pose a great burden on the
society as a whole because more resources are needed to support people
and their activities. In fact, Macao is a place without any raw material
resources but the intensity of resources, such as energy resources, water
resources, land and food resources, etc. are consumed in an everincreasing pace. Some of them are consumed directly by people at
home while the others are consumed by people indirectly in their
business and social activities. In considering the many positive and
negative effects of population growth on the economic, social and
environment development of this Chinese society, we need to model
Macaos population growth precisely. The purposes of this paper are to
(i) characterize Macaos population growth using a four-parameter
logistic model, (ii) quantify the relationship between Macaos
population growth and resource consumption in terms of electricity
consumption, water consumption, land use, etc. and (iii) forecast the
future demand on resources due to the projected population growth.
The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. First, we
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Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
describe the development of Macao before and after its return to

mainland China. Then, we introduce a four-parameter logistic model
and apply this model to characterize Macaos population growth and
economic growth. We also identify the relationships between
population growth, economic growth, and resource consumption.
Finally, conclusions and recommendations are given.
2.Macao from a Trading Port to the World

Gaming Center
Macao, a small city with a land area of 29.5 sq. km (DSEC, 2010),
is located at the southwest coast of the Pearl River Delta. It had been
under Portuguese administration for 442 years, first as a trading port,
and subsequently as a light industrial town with many textile, toys and
electronics factories. In the 1980s and 90s, Macao attracted visitors
from Hong Kong and other Asia countries as it was one of very few
locations with legalized gaming in the East. Before transferring its
sovereignty back to mainland China in December 1999, Macao had
already become a special location for visitors from Asia Pacific to
enjoy good food and table games in casinos and was called the Monte
Carlo of the East. At that time, all casinos were owned by Sociedade
de Turismo e Diverses de Macau (STDM) the sole casino operator in
Macao.
In 2002, the Government of Macao SAR liberalized the gaming
industry and granted concessions to three operators. They included
Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (a subsidiary of STDM and later signed a
sub-concession with the MGM Mirage), Galaxy (with a sub-concession
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
relationship with Venetian), and Wynn (later signed a sub-concession

with Melco-PBL). These operators invested heavily to construct megacasinos, resorts, convention and exhibition centers, shopping malls, and
hotels. The first mega-casino, the Sands Macao, was opened in May
2004 and attracted over half a million visitors in a month. Since then,
the number of casinos has increased steadily from 15 in 2004 to 33 in
2009. The gaming industrys annual gross revenue increased from US$
2.9 billion in 2002 to US$ 15.0 billion in 2009, surpassing that of
Nevada in the United Stated. Macaos GDP per capita increased from
US$14,400 in 2002 to US$38,950 in 2009, surpassing that of Hong
Kong and Singapore. As all gaming and entertainment venues are
operated on a 24 x 7 x 365 basis, electricity consumption in the gaming
sector alone increased by over 140 percent to 587 million kWh in 2008
from 2003 while water consumption amounted to 3.2 million m3 in
2008. The hotel industry also expanded rapidly. The number of hotels
increased from 35 with a total number of 8,264 guestrooms in 2002 to
59 with a total number of 180690 guestrooms in 2009. All new hotels
are four- and five-star hotels. In 2008, the hotel industry consumed 1.2
billion kWh electricity (increased by over 500 percent from 2002).
Between 2000 and 2009, there were more than 88,000 people
migrating to Macao or obtaining resident status. With an average of
approximately 2,000 newborns per year, Macaos population increased
from 0.43 million in 2000 to 0.54 million in 2009.
3.Logistic Growth Model

The government and business sector rely on a precise estimate of
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Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
future population for planning purposes. For modeling and forecasting

the population, sigmoid functions such as logistic and Gompertz (Pearl
& Reed, 1980; Raeside, 1988) and cohort component method (Cox,
1970; Brass, 1974) represent two different perspectives; one from top
down and another from bottom-up. As Murphy (1980) argues, since
forecasts have often been far from the path followed and so are
misleading, there are two ways to overcome this problem, seeking a
deeper insight into the process by considering more detailed
information, or, alternatively, to simplify the forecasting method. Both
Murphy (1980) and Raeside (1988) took the latter approach and
showed that accurate predictions for populations could be obtained by
adopting the simple logistic model. By analyzing historical data for 12
developed countries and 7 emerging countries, Raeside (1988) showed
that four-parameter logistic models produced a good fit to the data for 5
developed countries and 2 emerging countries. Three-parameter logistic
models (i.e. a four-parameter logistic model with the lower limit of
zero) produced a good fit to the data in 4 other developed countries and
3 other emerging countries. Recently, Singh et al. (2009) studied the
projections of population in Kerala an Indian province. They
illustrated that a four-parameter logistic model reproduced the historical
data accurately.
The four-parameter logistic model can be written as follows:
Pd
Pt = P0 +
(1)
1 + exp( ct *)
where P0 is the lower asymptote of population, Pd the final
increase in population, c the time constant (i.e. curvature parameter),
and t* the year t minus the year in which the middle of the growth
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
occurred.
To assess the model fit with historical data, the mean squared
error (MSE) is probably one of the most widely used indicators in the
literature (Diebold, 2004). MSE is expressed as:
MSE =
1 n 2
et
n t =1
(2)
where et is the difference between the observed population Pt and

in the year t.
the fitted population P
t
However, MSE fails to account for the inherent trend and
nonlinear property in a growth model (see Dacco & Satchell, 1999; Lai
et al., 2008). Therefore, it is suggested that two scale invariant
measures of accuracy the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE)
and the mean squared percent error (MSPE) and should be utilized (Lai
et al., 2008). MAPE and MSPE are given as follows:
1 n P Pt
MAPE = t
n t =1
Pt
1 n P Pt
MSPE = t
n t =1 Pt
(3)
(4)
Population data were obtained from the Macao Statistics and

Census Service. We specifically selected 2000 to be the starting year
because Macao reunited with mainland China in December 1999. There
has been renewed growth in the population due to the political, social,
and economic stability in Macao after this important event. Figure 1
shows that Macaos population increased quite rapidly in the past
decade, most obviously between 2005 and 2007. In 2008 and 2009, the
worlds economy was badly hit by the financial crisis originated from
sub-prime lending in the United States. Macao was no exception. There
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Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
were some new migrants returning to their home cities/countries,

causing a drop in population in 2009. The GDP growth was reignited in
the 4th quarter of 2009 and Macao has double-digit economic growth in
the first two quarters of 2010. To avoid the abnormality in 2009, the
logistic modeling was carried out using the population data from 2000
to 2008. The goodness of fit was assessed using MSPE as it took
nonlinearity and the effect of residuals in percent into consideration.
MAPE and MSE were also computed. Figure 1 shows that the logistic
curve follows the growth of Macaos population closely, except in the
Year 2009.
Population
Populaton predicted
700000
Population
600000
500000
400000
300000
200000
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
Year
Figure 1. Macaos population from 2000 to 2009

(and predicted population from 2000 to 2016)
The fitted logistic model is given as follows:
279000
Pt = 422000 +
1 + exp( 0.44 * (t 2008 ))
(5)
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
The Pearsons correlation between the observed population and the

predicted population from 2000 to 2008 was 0.989. MSPE, MAPE, and
MSE were 0.00002, 0.00126, and 4.719106. The Pearsons correlation
was 0.960 when population data for the Year 2009 was also included.
Based on this logistic model, it is expected that Macaos population will
increase to about 0.7 million in the Year 2016.
Similarly, Macaos economic growth was modeled using the fourparameter logistic model. The logistic modeling was carried out using
the GDP data from 2000 to 2008 to avoid the abnormality in 2009. The
fitted logistic model for Macaos GDP is given as follows:
33500
GDP t = 5500 +
1 + exp( 0.5 * (t 2008 )) million US$ (6)
The Pearsons correlation between Macaos GDP and the predicted
GDP from 2000 to 2008 was 0.997. MSPE, MAPE, and MSE were
0.00142, 0.03072, and 1.8931017. The Pearsons correlation was
0.978 when population data for the Year 2009 was included. It is
expected that Macaos GDP per capita will increase to about US$ 38
billion in the Year 2016 as shown in Figure 2.
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Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
Gross Domestic Product in US$
GDP
GDP predicted
4.0E+10
3.5E+10
3.0E+10
2.5E+10
2.0E+10
1.5E+10
1.0E+10
5.0E+09
0.0E+00
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
Year
Figure 2. Macaos GDP in US$ from 2000 to 2009

(and predicted GDP from 2000 to 2016)
3.Population Growth, Economic Growth, and

Resource Consumption
Electricity consumption data were compiled from the annual
reports of Macaos power company and the Balance of Energy
published by Macao Statistics and Census Service. Table 1 shows the
sectoral electricity consumption amounts for the period 2000 - 2009.
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
Table 1. The sectoral electricity consumption amounts for the period 20002009.
Sector 1
Commercial
Industrial
806
202
877
140
938
148
992
167
1061
176
1194
210
1444
195
1911
236
2238
207
2386
165
Year
Residential
2000
407
2001
421
2002
443
2003
453
2004
485
2005
549
2006
565
2007
617
2008
637
2009
682
1
The unit is million kWh.
2
Others include the electricity consumed for public services.
Total 1
Others
158
164
159
159
181
206
220
220
230
230
1573
1602
1688
1771
1903
2159
2424
2984
3312
3463
Water consumption data were compiled from the annual reports of

Macaos water company and the Environmental Statistics published by
Macao Statistics and Census Service. Table 2 shows the sectoral water
consumption amounts for the period 2000 - 2009.
Table 2. The sectoral water consumption amounts for the period 2000-2009.
Year
Residential
22979299
24131455
24905035
26658127
27508680
27916443
29840988
30846168
31605313
31871255
Sector 1
Commercial
19941704
19826731
19555621
20152496
21527584
23828252
26163525
30610267
31712637
31653728
Total 1
Others 2
4320405
4415918
4616883
4816327
4355855
4115649
4352282
4371577
4138797
4592030
2000
47241408
2001
48374104
2002
49077539
2003
51626950
2004
53392119
2005
55860344
2006
60356795
2007
65828012
2008
67456747
2009
68117013
1
The unit is m3.
2
Others mainly include the water consumed by the Government for public services.
Land area data were obtained from the Macao Statistics and
Census Service. Table 3 shows that Macaos land area increased by 16
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Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
percent in the past decade, mostly from land reclamation projects in

Cotai and Macaos coastal areas. However, no land use data were
available from the Government of Macao SAR.
Table 3. Land area of Macao in square kilometers for the period 2000-2009.
2000
25.4
2001
25.8
2002
26.8
2003
27.3
2004
27.5
2005
28.2
2006
28.6
2007
29.2
2008
29.2
2009
29.5
3.1. Correlation among population, GDP,

electricity and water consumption
In order to understand the relationships among population, GDP,
electricity and water consumption in details, correlation analysis was
performed and the results are shown in Table 4.
[Insert Table 4 Here]
Table 4 shows that population was strongly correlated with GDP,
the total and sectoral electricity consumptions except industrial
electricity consumption, and the total and sectoral water consumptions
except the others that mainly comprised public water consumption. To
explain this phenomenon, we have to understand the economic
structures of Macao. As mentioned in Section 2, Macao is the one and
only one gaming city in China and also the major gaming center in
Asia. Casino operators contributed to over 75 percent of the citys
government revenue (Lai & To, 2010). They also employed a
significant number of citizens in their casinos, hotels, convention and
exhibition centers, and shopping malls. As the gaming industry
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
developed rapidly and provided a large number of job opportunities,

more and more citizens worked in this industry. In order to deal with
the lack of manpower, the Government of Macao SAR started allowing
people from nearby regions, such as mainland China, Hong Kong SAR,
and Philippines to work for some organizations under the professionals
and unskilled workers schemes. In light of this, it implied that the
increase in GDP, especially from the gaming industry, coupled with
population growth. However, we cannot infer the causal relationship
between population growth and the growth in GDP because the
causality is debatable and complex (Kapuria-Foreman, 1995; Wong &
Furuoka, 2005; see also our discussions in Section 4).
When population grew, more resources such as electricity and
water were consumed. The correlation coefficients of population with
total electricity and total water consumption, which were close to 1 at a
significance level of less than 0.0001, reflected that the total electricity
and total water consumptions were strongly related to population.
However, not all sectoral electricity consumption and water
consumption components were correlated with population. For
examples, industrial electricity consumption had a weak, insignificant
correlation with population at 0.565 (p>0.05) because Macaos
industrial sector was and still would be very small and had nothing to
do with population growth. The others mainly including public water
consumption had a weak, insignificant negative correlation with
population at -0.314 (p>0.10) and the amount of water consumed by the
Government typically did not depend on population as a function of
time.
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Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
3.2. Population and electricity consumption

a bivariate regression analysis
Table 1 illustrates that electricity consumption in the commercial
sector increased from 806 million kWh (51 percent of the total) in 2000
to 2386 million kWh (69 percent of the total) in 2009 while electricity
consumption in the residential sector increased from 407 million kWh
in 2000 to 682 million kWh. Electricity consumption in the industrial
sector and the others (at least the sum of them) did not vary
significantly during the period 2000 2009. The mean electricity
consumption for the former was 185 million kWh with a standard
deviation of 30 million kWh. The mean electricity consumption for the
latter group was 193 million kWh with a standard deviation of 31
million kWh. Figures 3(a) and 3(b) shows the scatter plots of
population versus electricity consumption in the residential sector and
Macaos GDP versus electricity consumption in the commercial sector.
These two scatter plots show clearly that there were significant linear
relationships between the dependent variables and the independent
variables. The identified linear relationship between population and the
residential electricity consumption is:
ELEC residentia l = 0.00197 POP 427 .5
million kWh, (7)
where POP is the population.

The
relationship
between
Macaos
GDP
and
electricity
consumption in the commercial sector is:

ELEC commercial = 9.45 10 8 GDP + 205 .9 million kWh, (8)
where GDP stands for Macaos GDP in US dollars.
Based on these two linear relationships and the average electricity
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
consumption in the industrial sector and the others, it is expected that

the total electricity consumption in Macao will increase to 5150 million
kWh in 2016 (another 48.7 percent increase from 2009).
600
550
500
450
400
350
400000
450000
500000
550000
600000
R2 = 0.97
3000
2500
in million kWh
650
y = 9E-08x + 205.9
Electricity consumption - comm.
R2 = 0.96
700
in million kWh
Electricity consumption - residential
y = 0.00197 x - 427.5
2000
1500
1000
500
0
0.0E+00 5.0E+09 1.0E+10 1.5E+10 2.0E+10 2.5E+10
Population
Figure 3(a) Population vs ELECresi

dential
Figure 3(b) Macaos
GDP vs ELECcommercial
3.3. Population and water consumption a

bivariate regression analysis
Table 2 illustrates that water consumption in the commercial sector
increased from 19.94 million m3 (42 percent of the total) in 2000 to
31.65 million m3 (47 percent of the total) in 2008 while water
consumption in the residential sector increased from 22.97 million m3
to 31.87 million m3. Water consumption by the others (mostly by the
Government of Macao) did not vary significantly during the period
2000 2009 with a mean consumption of 4.41 million m3 (S.D. 0.22
million m3). Figures 4(a) and 4(b) shows the scatter plots of population
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Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
versus water consumption in the residential sector and Macaos GDP

versus water consumption in the commercial sector. These two scatter
plots show clearly that there were significant linear relationships
between population and residential water consumption and Macaos
GDP and commercial water consumption. The identified linear
relationship between population and the residential water consumption
is:
WATER
residentia l
= 63 .496 POP 2872871
m3,
(9)
where POP is the population.

The relationship between Macaos GDP and water consumption in
the commercial sector is:
WATER
commercial
= 0.000835 GDP +14078236
m 3,
(10)
where GDP stands for Macaos GDP in US dollars.

Based on these two linear relationships and the average water
consumed by the others, it is expected that the total water consumption
in Macao will increase to 91 million m3 in 2016 (another 34.6 percent
increase from 2009).
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
y = 0.000835 x + 14078236
R2 = 0.94
30000000
25000000
20000000
15000000
R2 = 0.98
35000000
in cubic meters
Water consumption - comm.
35000000
in cubic meters
Water consumption - residential
y = 63.496 x - 2872871
30000000
25000000
20000000
15000000
350000 400000 450000 500000 550000 600000
0.0E+00 5.0E+09 1.0E+10 1.5E+10 2.0E+10 2.5E+10
Population
Figure 4(a) Population vs WATERresidential
Figure 4(b) Macaos GDP vs
WATERcommercial
3.4. Population and land use

Land is a scarce resource in Macao and major land reclamation
projects have to be approved by the central government. Between 2000
and 2009, Macao had a number of small land reclamations and its
physical size increased from 25.4 km2 to 29.5 km2. However, there was
no yearly statistical data on land use. At the time of writing this paper,
the Government of Macao SAR has initiated several building projects
with an aim to satisfy the unfulfilled demands on public housing
(MSAR, 2010). They stated that more than 12 thousand applications to
public housing have been lodged in the past decade and decided to
provide several thousands of public housing units in two to three years
time. In the commercial sector, most of mega-casinos and resorts were
constructed and are being constructed on the coastal area of Macao
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Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
peninsula and the reclaimed plots in Cotai. It was estimated that over
3.0 km2 of land have been used for this purpose in the past seven years.
Although no statistical data was available from the government, it
is generally agreed that more lands are needed for residential and
commercial purposes, if Macao wants to sustain its demographical and
economic growth (MSAR, 2010).
The central government recently approved Macao to reclaim 3.5
2
km of land on the coastal area and allowed Macao to make use of a

piece of land with an area of 1.0 km2 for the expansion of the
University of Macao in its neighboring city Zhuhai.
4. Discussions
Past researches illustrated that population growth has a close
relationship with economic development in developed countries
(Beaudry & Green, 2002; Rosenzweig, 1988; Wong & Furuoka, 2005)
and developing countries (Coale, 1978; Easterlin, 1967; KapuriaForeman, 1995; Kelley, 1988; Wong & Furuoka, 2005). In developed
countries/cities such as the United States, Singapore and Hong Kong,
population growth is typically flat or even slightly negative because the
living standard in these areas is very high. Parents need to spend a lot
of money to support their kids, such as medical costs, education fees,
daily expenditures, transport, and housing. Hong Kong is a good
example. In accordance with the estimate by financial planners, the
total expenditure for having a kid and supporting him/her to the age of
18 costs about US$ 0.5 million. This large amount of money puts a lot
of financial pressure on prospective parents. As a result, many new
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
couples in Hong Kong worry about the financial strain and delay their
plan to have a baby. In these circumstances, economic environments
influence their family incomes directly, thus affecting population
growth. In Macao, the gaming industry developed rapidly and required
a large number of workforces. The Government of Macao SAR
launched a scheme for importing specialists and unskilled workers in
different industries, such as engineers, managers, and construction
workers, so as to support numerous gaming-related projects. Some
migrating workers decided to stay here as residents and thus caused a
rapid growth in population in the past decade. It is clear that economic
growth can affect the growth of population directly or indirectly, at
least in the case of Macao SAR.
To support the societys development, more and more resources
like electricity and water are consumed. However, the factors that affect
electricity consumption and water consumption are not identical. In
Macao, the majority of electricity is consumed in the commercial
sector, such as casinos and hotels. In general, casinos operate in a 24hour 7-day a week basis and these non-stop operations consume
electricity continuously. In addition, modern casinos provide table
games and slot machine games and some casinos increase the ratio of
electricity-consumed slot machines to table games significantly. Under
these situations, the rapid development in the gaming industry
generates a heavy demand on electricity.
The factors that affect the total water consumption came from two
broad categories. One is the commercial side and another is the
residential side. In the commercial sector, the development in the
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Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
gaming industry was reflected by the large number of new casinos and
hotels built in this small city. More and more visitors came to Macao
and the number of guest-room nights increased steadily, causing the
increase in water consumption directly. Besides, under the professional
workers scheme, many temporary professionals decided to stay in
Macao, thus increasing the demands on housing and water for bathing,
washing clothes and dishes, flushing, and cooking. Thus, the historical
data showed an increase in commercial and residential water
consumption.
Unavoidably, resources are eventually turned into pollutants. For
example, energy consumption will lead to the depletion of fossil fuels
and cause air pollution locally and globally. Water consumption will
lead to the discharge of wastewater. Land use will lead to the loss of
biodiversity.
5. Conclusion
After reuniting with mainland China, Macao has renewed
population and economic growths because of its political, economic
and social stability. Under the one-country two-system arrangement and
opening-up policy in the gaming industry, Macao benefits from being
the only city in China to offer legalized casino gaming that attracted
renowned casino operators such as Venetian, Wynn, PBL and MGM
Mirage, and heavyweight regional firms such as Sociedade de Jogos de
Macau, Galaxy, and Melco to invest heavily in building and creating
world class mega-casinos, hotels, resorts, convention and exhibition
centers, and shopping malls. This change also attracted many people in
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
nearby countries and cities to come and work in the gaming and
associated industries. Some become permanent or temporary residents
in Macao.
By using the historical data for the period 2000 to 2009 and a
review of the literature on population growth, we found that Macaos
population growth follows a logistic growth pattern. We estimated that
Macaos population would reach 0.7 million by 2016. Similarly,
Macaos economy will have a sustained growth in the near future. By
the year 2016, Macaos GDP will increase to US$ 38 billion (or about
US$ 55,400 per capita). However, population growth and economic
growth pose challenges to the government and business sector. The
results of correlation analysis indicated that electricity consumption and
water consumption are closely related to population and GDP. By using
regression analysis we estimated that the total electricity consumption
in Macao will increase to 5150 million kWh in 2016 (another 48.7
percent increase from 2009) while the total water consumption in
Macao will increase to 91 million m3 in 2016 (another 34.6 percent
increase from 2009). The lack of skilled workers and professionals, and
the increase in labor cost will adversely affect the development of
business activities in Macao. So, the key challenge questions include:
Where are those resources coming from? Does Macao have appropriate
infrastructures in place to meet the ever-increasing demands on
electricity, water, public housing, etc? How can Macao retain and
attract talents? Besides, the consumption of resources produces
pollutants and waste. According to To et al. (2007), Macaos power
company stated that it generated 0.633 kg of CO2, 0.011 kg of NOx, and
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0.008 kg of SO2 per kWh electricity produced locally. By taking the

environmental influences due to the imported electricity from Zhuhai
into account, it was estimated that 0.773 kg CO2-equivalent, 0.005 kg
of NOx and 0.005 kg SO2 were produced for 1kWh electricity
consumed in Macao. The projected 5150 million kWh in 2016 implies
that 3.98 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gases will be
discharged to the atmosphere in that year. Every liter of water
consumed eventually ends up in a sewer. From these, it is clear that
environmental pollutions are closely related to the natural resources
used in Macao.
From the perspective of city development, more investment in the
pillar industry would generate economic growth and benefit its
associated industries. Macao, since the liberalization of the gaming
industry, has attracted a huge amount of foreign and local investments
in the gaming industry as well as its associated industries like the
tourism and real estate industries. Certainly, there is always a trade off
among economic benefits, natural resource consumptions, social
equality and environmental damages. The policy makers should
consider the probable long-term implications when establishing
population policies and setting up policies for economic development.
Population growth and economic development are truly beneficial only
when we concern about sustainable development for our next
generations. In conclusion, long-term strategic plans for a city should
balance the social, economic, and environmental aspects of peoples
lives today and tomorrow.
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011
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126
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011

1
-
1
-
Residential
1
-
0.380
0.279
1
-
Electricity
Commercial
Industrial
Others 2
Total
Residential
Water Consumption
Commercial
Others 2
Table 4. Correlation among population, GDP, electricity consumption and water consumption
GDP
Cor1
Sig.
0.986
0.000
0.979
0.000
Population
Cor
Sig.
0.980
0.000
Population
GDP
Cor
Sig.
1
-
Residential
Electricity
0.964
0.000
0.463
0.177
0.985
0.000
0.495
0.146
0.954
0.000
0.565
0.089
Cor
Sig
Cor
Sig
Commercial
Electricity
Industrial Electricity
Total
Vol. 18, No. 1, 2011

Commercial
Water Consumption
Residential Water Consumption
Total Electricity
Others (Electricity)
Cor
Sig
Cor
Sig
Cor
Sig
Cor
Sig
Cor
Sig
-0.314
0.376
0.984
0.000
0.971
0.000
0.972
0.000
0.970
0.000
0.994
0.000
-0.28
4
0.427
0.992
0.000
0.958
0.000
0.994
0.000
0.945
0.000
0.979
0.000
0.965
0.000
0.997
0.000
0.900
0.000
0.437
0.207
0.550
0.100
0.928
0.000
1
-
0.976
0.000
-0.194
0.591
0.935
0.000
1
-
0.989
0.000
-0.304
0.393
1
-
-0.242
0.501
1
-
1
-
Others (water)
0.993
0.000
Others include the electricity/water consumed for public services.
Cor and Sig. stand for correlation coefficient and 2-tailed significance level.
Cor
Sig
Total Water
Consumption
1
-
128 Population Growth and Resource in Macao
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