We study population of compact X-ray sources in the Small Magellanic Cloud using the archival data of XMM-Newton observatory .
The total area of the survey is \approx 1.5 square degrees with the limiting sensitivity of \approx 10 ^ { -14 } erg/s/cm ^ { 2 } , corresponding to the luminosity of \approx 4.3 \cdot 10 ^ { 33 } erg/s at the SMC distance .
Out of \sim 150 point sources detected in the 2–8 keV energy band , \sim 3 / 4 are background CXB sources , observed through the SMC .
Based on the properties of the optical and near-infrared counterparts of the detected sources we identified likely HMXB candidates , and sources , whose nature is uncertain , thus , providing a lower and upper limits on the luminosity distribution of HMXBs in the observed part of the SMC .

The observed number of HMXBs is consistent with the prediction based on SFR estimates derived from the supernovae frequency and analysis of color-magnitude diagrams of the stellar population .
If , on the contrary , the true value of the SFR is better represented by FIR , H _ { \alpha } and UV based estimators , then the abundance of HMXBs in the SMC may significantly ( by a factor of as much as \sim 10 ) exceed the value derived for the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies .
The shape of the observed distribution at the bright end is consistent with the universal HMXB XLF .
At the faint end , L _ { X } \la 2 \cdot 10 ^ { 34 } erg/sec , the upper limit on the luminosity function is consistent with while the lower limit is significantly flatter than the L ^ { -0.6 } power law .