Hong Kong Born Diaspora - Australia, Canada, US: Regions with Significant Population

All data below are per 2021 Census

1) Toronto Census Metropolitan Area: 99,515 (Statistics Canada)
2) Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area: 76,115 (Statistics Canada)
3) San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA CSA (Bay Area): 61,953 (American Community Survey)
4) New York-Newark, NY-NJ-CT-PA CSA (NYC Tri State Area): 55,246 (American Community Survey)
5) Greater Sydney: 46,182 (Australian Bureau of Statistics)
6) Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA CSA (Includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino & Ventura Counties): 34,323 (American Community Survey)
7) Greater Melbourne: 24,428 (Australian Bureau of Statistics)

Much has been made by the media about the HK Diaspora in Vancouver. But the one in Toronto doesn't garner as much attention as Vancouver even though it is bigger and the biggest in the list above. Google Map Cha Chaan Teng around Markham, Richmond Hill, Scarborough & North York and it is incredible the endless listing that is displayed.

Interesting regarding the Sydney numbers. Smaller than San Francisco or New York but significantly bigger than Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Southern California numbers aren't very surprising. The demographic makeup of Cantonese speakers there is different from the ones in Toronto or Vancouver. There is large contingent of Cantonese speakers from Vietnam in the LA area that have been around for a very long time. You can find many of them in areas like Rosemead, Alhambra, Monterey Park, El Monte, etc just to name a few. Large contingent of Cantonese from Mainland China as well. They too have been around for decades. But not too many from HK. The Canto speakers from Vietnam & Mainland China greatly outnumber the ones from HK. From the same set of data in the link, you can see there are 273,979 born in China, 266,582 born in Vietnam but only 34,323 born in HK. Disclaimer: not everyone born in China or Vietnam speak Cantonese.

The San Francisco numbers seem also to tell something. Perhaps Taishanese & other Guangdong folks from the mainland that make up the bulk majority of Cantonese speakers in the Bay Area greatly outnumber the 61,953 born in Hong Kong. But 61,953 is a significant number and not small by any means and the biggest in the USA. 3rd biggest in North America. Fairly certain most of the 61,953 don't live in the old SF Chinatown. So they must be spread-out elsewhere in the Bay Area.

Disclaimer: not all Cha Chaan Teng are open by HKers.