HKU POP releases ratings of top 10 political groups Back

POP today releases on schedule via the POP Site the latest ratings of the top 10 political groups. As a general practice, all the figures have been weighted according to provisional figures obtained from the Census and Statistics Department regarding the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population in mid-year 2012. Herewith the contact information for the latest survey:

The research design of our "Top ten political groups" has been explained in detail under "Survey Method" in our corresponding web page. The top political groups listed in our latest survey were all those who obtained highest unprompted mentions in our first stage naming survey conducted from February 18 to 21. In that survey, respondents could name, unaided, up to 10 political groups whom they knew best. Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), Democratic Party (DP), Liberal Party (LP), Civic Party and League of Social Democrats (LSD) were mentioned most frequently. Please refer to the relevant table in our website for the rest of the list. The 12 most frequently mentioned political groups then entered into the second stage rating survey. During that second stage survey conducted from February 22 to 25, respondents were asked to rate each political group in turn using a 0-100 scale. 0 indicates absolutely no support, 100 indicates absolute support, and 50 means half-half. After calculation, the bottom 2 political groups in terms of recognition rate were dropped, leaving behind the top 10. In case any group failed to reach the 50% benchmark recognition rate, it would also be dropped. It should, however, be noted that because political groups are not yet legal entities in Hong Kong, such definitions are rather vague, and so-called political groups are constantly evolving. As a result, strange names may appear in the list of groups mentioned by respondents in Stage One surveys. In order to avoid personal bias, our research team will eliminate groups which fall outside the popular definition only after the first stage of the survey. To facilitate readers follow our research process step by step, the POP Site has already displayed the results of all naming surveys conducted since July 1998. The latest ratings of the top 10 political groups, together with the previous ratings, are summarized below:

[6] All error figures in the table are calculated at 95% confidence level. "95% confidence level" means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified. Media can state "sampling error of various ratings not more than +/-2.4 at 95% confidence level" when quoting the above figures. The error margin of previous survey can be found at the POP Site.
[7] Ratings with recognition rates not reaching top 10 in either stage of survey are not available. { } Number in square brackets indicates rankings.
[8] Such changes have gone beyond the sampling errors at the 95% confidence level, meaning that they are statistically significant prima facie. However, whether numerical differences are statistically significant or not is not the same as whether they are practically useful or meaningful.
[9] Labour Party was founded on 18 December 2011.

Findings obtained in late-February showed that, the most popular political group was Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood (ADPL) which attained 49.9 marks, Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) scored 49.5 marks and ranked 2nd. The 3rd to 8th places went to Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU), Civic Party (CP), New People’s Party (NPP), Democratic Party (DP), Liberal Party (LP) and Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), attaining 49.0, 48.1, 46.8, 46.6, 44.4 and 41.9 marks respectively. The 9th and 10th places fell to People Power and League of Social Democrats (LSD) with a respective score of 37.6 and 37.2. The mean score obtained by the top 5 political groups was 48.6 marks. For this latest survey, Neighbourhood and Worker’s Service Centre (NWS) and Labour Party obtained a support rating of 52.0 and 46.4 marks respectively, but they were dropped due to their relatively low recognition rates. The overall ratings ranked according to results obtained over the past 12 months are tabulated as follows:

[10] “Average rating” is the average of all ratings obtained by political groups over the past 12 months.
[11] “Overall ranking” is first determined by their number of times on top 10, and then their average ratings. { } Number in square brackets indicates rankings.

The overall rankings in the past 12 months showed that, nine political groups were listed for four times, FTU ranked first, achieving an average rating of 50.1 marks. ADPL and HKCTU ranked 2nd and 3rd, attaining average ratings of 48.7 and 47.6 marks respectively. Meanwhile, the 4th to 9th ranks fell to DP, DAB, CP, LP, People Power and LSD, with respective average ratings of 46.6, 46.2, 45.0, 43.5, 34.0 and 33.8 marks. NPP was listed three times while NWS was listed once, now ranked the 10th and 11th with 45.7 and 50.5 marks.

In January 2007, POP opened a feature page called "Opinion Daily" at the "POP Site", to record significant events and selected polling figures on a day-to-day basis, in order to let readers judge by themselves the reasons for the ups and downs of different opinion figures. In July 2007, POP collaborated with Wisers Information Limited whereby Wisers supplies to POP each day starting from July 24, a record of significant events of that day, according to the research method designed by POP. These daily entries would be uploaded to "Opinion Daily" as soon as they are verified by POP.

For the polling items covered in this press release, the previous survey was conducted from November 8 to 15, 2012 while this survey was conducted from February 22 to 25, 2013. In between these two surveys, herewith the significant events selected from counting newspaper headlines and commentaries on a daily basis and covered by at least 25% of the local newspaper articles. Readers can make their own judgment if these significant events have any impacts to different polling figures.

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, “Our latest survey of ‘Top 10 Political Groups’ conducted in February shows that NPP surpasses the recognition threshold again to re-enter the ‘top 10’ list, replacing NWS. In terms of support ratings, compared to three months ago, the ratings of 5 out of 10 political groups have gone up, 5 have gone down. Among them, only DAB registers a decrease beyond sampling error, down by 2.8 marks. No political group among the ‘top 10’ scores more than 50 marks. In terms of relative rankings, ADPL goes up one position to occupy the top place. HKCTU goes up two positions to rank 2nd. FTU remains at the 3rd place. CP goes up one position to rank the 4th. NPP re-enters the list to rank the 5th. DP, LP and DAB remain at the 6th, 7th and 8th positions respectively. People Power and LSD swap positions to rank 9th and 10th. It should be noted, however, that our ‘Top 10 Political Groups’ only includes groups which are best known to the public, ranked according to their support ratings. Other political groups may well have very high or low support ratings, but because they are relatively less well-known, they are not included in our final list. For example, NWS has the highest support ratings in the last two surveys, but because of its low recognition rate, it is dropped from the ‘top 10’ in the latest survey. As to what events have affected the ups and downs of the popularity of these groups, readers can make their own judgment after reading through detailed records placed in our ‘Opinion Daily’.”

• March 12, 2013 (Tuesday) 1pm to 2pm: Popularity of CE and Principal Officials