Macau’s number of visitor arrivals last year broke the 40-million benchmark for the first time, the Public Security Police (PSP) announced yesterday.
A PSP statement released on its WeChat account last night said that Macau recorded 40.06 million visitor arrivals in 2025, the highest annual number on record, representing a 1.66 percent increase from the previous record of 39.406 million set in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year’s number of visitor arrivals rose 14.7 percent from the 34.93 million recorded in 2024.
In 2025, according to the statement, mainland Chinese accounted for 72.4 percent of all visitor arrivals, while Hongkongers accounted for 18.2 percent and Taiwanese for 2.5 percent. Foreign nationals accounted for the remaining 6.9 percent.
The PSP data on visitor arrivals in 2025 announced yesterday are set to be slightly adjusted by Macau’s official statistics agency, Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC), which is scheduled to announce Macau’s 2025 number of visitor arrivals and their composition on January 23.
Macau logs record-breaking 235 million border crossings in 2025
Moreover, the PSP statement also announced that Macau recorded 235 million entries and exits at its border checkpoints in 2025, up 9.8 percent year on year, also the highest annual number on record.
According to previous PSP announcements, Macau’s total number of entries and exits in 2024 stood at around 210 million. In pre-pandemic 2019, some 190 million entries and exits were recorded at Macau’s border checkpoints.
The entry and exit (border crossings) figures recorded by the Public Security Police, which run Macau’s immigration service, comprise local residents, visitors, non-resident workers (NRWs), non-local students enrolled in Macau, and all others with a special permit to stay in Macau.
In 2025, according to last night’s PSP statement, local residents accounted for 36.4 percent of the total number of border crossings at all checkpoints, while visitors accounted for 33.9 percent, non-resident workers and their family members for 26.2 percent, and non-local students enrolled in Macau for 3.2 percent.
According to the statement, the Barrier Gate checkpoint recorded 124 million entries and exits last year, representing 52.7 percent of the total number of border crossings at all checkpoints, while the Qingmao checkpoint, the Hengqin checkpoint, and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge’s (HZMB) Macau checkpoint recorded 36.36 million, 30.35 million, and 27.96 million entries and exits, accounting for 15.4 percent, 12.9 percent and 11.8 percent of the total respectively.
The statement also said that in addition to the highest annual number of entries and exits at all checkpoints on record, the city’s 2025 border-crossing figures also broke different types of records.
On May 2, 2025, the statement said, Macau recorded 837,000 entries and exits at its border checkpoints, then setting a record in terms of the daily number. However, the statement said, the record was broken again on New Year’s Day last week, when 866,000 entries and exits were recorded.
Also on May 2, 2025, the statement said, the Hengqin checkpoint recorded 128,000 entries and exits, then setting a record in terms of the daily number. However, the statement said, the record was also broken again on Thursday last week, when 147,000 entries and exits were recorded.
On February 1, 2025, the statement said, the HZMB Macau checkpoint recorded 142,000 entries and exits, its highest daily number on record.
Meanwhile, a PSP statement on Friday said that Macau recorded 188,000 visitor arrivals on Thursday, the highest number ever recorded on a New Year’s Day.
Tourists visit the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Ruins of St. Paul’s landmark late last month. – Photos: Tony Wong
Border crossers enter the Hengqin checkpoint’s immigration hall en route to Macau early last month.
