HKU POP releases popularity figures of CE and the GovernmentBack

(1) In light of numerous public requests received by the Public Opinion Programme (POP) of The University of Hong Kong asking us to conduct surveys on the current situation, many with suggested questions, POP has opened a new page today at “PopCon” (http://popcon.hk) to let people suggest questions for general surveys of the Hong Kong public. Once adopted, these questions will be used in standard POP surveys, and their findings would be released as soon as possible. POP takes this as a community service to discover real public opinion. Up to now 33 proposed questions and 1 email opinion submitted by citizens have been uploaded to the platform. POP hereby expresses our gratitude to them.

(2) To facilitate academic study and rational discussion, POP has already released for public examination some time ago via the “HKU POP Site” (http://hkupop.pori.hk) the raw data of all 57 regular rating surveys of CE CY Leung, as well as the 181 regular rating surveys of former CE Donald Tsang and 239 regular rating surveys of former CE CH Tung, along with related demographics of respondents. POP today releases the raw data of the latest which is the 58th CE rating survey of CY Leung. Please follow normal academic standards when using or citing such data. Moreover, POP’s original plan to launch a “POP Education Page” is now put on hold due to the prevailing social situation.

POP interviewed 1,018 Hong Kong people between 20 and 23 October 2014 by means of a random telephone survey conducted by real interviewers. Our survey shows that the latest support rating of CE CY Leung drops 1.7 marks compared with two weeks ago, now at 38.9 marks, which is record low since he became CE. Leung’s net approval rate now stands at negative 39 percentage points. As for the SAR Government, its satisfaction rate now stands at 27%, while dissatisfaction rate at 51%, giving a net satisfaction rate of negative 24 percentage points. Indepth analysis shows that those aged between 18 and 29 only give Leung 22.8 marks on average, which is the lowest among all groups, and 87% do not want him to be CE. As society polarizes, 18% of the respondents claimed they have participated in the Occupy Movement, and they only give 13.4 marks on average to Leung, while 94% of them disapprove Leung as CE. For so poor a popularity and for such immense social conflicts, the ruling team has to be blamed. The maximum sampling error of all percentage figures is +/-4 percentage points at 95% confidence level, while the sampling error of rating figures and net values need another calculation. The response rate of the survey is 66%.

POP today releases on schedule via the “POP SITE” the latest popularity figures of CE CY Leung and the HKSAR Government. From 2014, POP enhanced the previous simple weighting method based on age and gender distribution to “rim weighting” based on age, gender and education (highest level attended) distribution. The latest figures released today have been rim-weighted according to provisional figures obtained from the Census and Statistics Department regarding the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population in 2014 mid-year and the educational attainment (highest level attended) distribution collected in the 2011 Census.

[6] Errors are calculated at 95% confidence level using full sample size. “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. Questions using only sub-samples would have bigger sampling error. Sampling errors of ratings are calculated according to the distribution of the scores collected.

Recent popularity figures of CE CY Leung and people’s satisfaction of the overall performance of the HKSAR Government are summarized as follows:

[7] 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 rating not more than +/-1.9, sampling error of percentages not more than +/-4%, sampling error of net values not more than +/-7% at 95% confidence level” when quoting the above figures. The error margin of previous survey can be found at the POP Site.
[8] Collapsed from a 5-point scale. The mean value is calculated by quantifying all individual responses into 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 marks according to their degree of positive level, where 1 is the lowest and 5 the highest, and then calculate the sample mean. Starting from March 2011, this question only uses sub-samples of the tracking surveys concerned. The sample size for this series is 622.
[9] Such changes have gone beyond the sampling errors at the 95% confidence level under the same weighting method, 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.

The latest survey showed that, CE Leung Chun-ying scored 38.9 marks, and 23% supported him as CE, his net approval rate is negative 39 percentage points. Regarding people’s appraisal of the overall performance of the HKSAR Government, the latest figures revealed that 27% were satisfied, whereas 51% were dissatisfied, thus net satisfaction stands at negative 24 percentage points. The mean score is 2.5, which is in between “quite dissatisfied” and “half-half”.

Indepth Analysis

In the survey, we also asked respondents for their age and whether they had participated in mass gatherings of the Occupy Movement. If they were reluctant to give their exact age, they could give us a range. Herewith further analysis of the rating and support rate of Leung Chun-ying as Chief Executive by respondents’ age and whether they had participated in mass gatherings of the Occupy Movement, with sub-sample size placed in brackets:

[10] Differences among sub-groups are tested to be statistically significant at 95% confidence level.

[11] Differences among sub-groups are tested to be statistically significant at 95% confidence level.

[12] Differences among sub-groups are tested to be statistically significant at 95% confidence level.

[13] Differences among sub-groups are tested to be statistically significant at 95% confidence level.

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 of some items was conducted from 17 to 22 September, 2014 while this survey was conducted from 20 to 23 October, 2014. During this period, 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 POP, observed, “Our latest survey conducted about three weeks after the Occupy Movement had started shows that the latest support rating of CE CY Leung drops 1.7 marks compared with two weeks ago, now at 38.9 marks, which is record low since he became CE. Leung’s net approval rate now stands at negative 39 percentage points. As for the SAR Government, its satisfaction rate now stands at 27%, while dissatisfaction rate at 51%, giving a net satisfaction rate of negative 24 percentage points. Indepth analysis shows that those aged between 18 and 29 only give Leung 22.8 marks on average, which is the lowest among all groups, and 87% do not want him to be CE. As society polarizes, 18% of the respondents claimed they have participated in the Occupy Movement, and they only give 13.4 marks on average to Leung, while 94% of them disapprove Leung as CE. For so poor a popularity and for such immense social conflicts, the ruling team has to be blamed. Because the popularity of CE has fallen to record low again, I reprint again the abstracts of two articles written by me before on CE popularity for public reference. The articles can be downloaded in full from the POP Site.”

“The Popularity of Tung Chee-hwa from All Angles” (released on 14/5/2003): “According to our experience, a political figure with less than 50 marks can be said to have fallen into negative popularity, while a score of less than 45 marks can indicate credibility crisis. Using this analysis, Tung has been negatively popular among the general public since August 2002, and in March 2003, he has sunk into a credibility crisis…”

“New Perspectives on Chief Executive Ratings” (released on 12/6/2003): “Concurrent tests showed that a support rating of 55 marks was more or less equivalent to a ‘vote share’ of 45%, 50 marks could be converted to round about 30%, 45 marks to 20%, and 40 marks to 10% to 15%... In late 1990, after the ‘approval rate’ of Margaret Thatcher sank to 25%, she withdrew from the election for the leader of the British Conservative Party, thereby gave up her job as the Prime Minister of UK, a post which she held since 1979. In early 1997, John Major lost his post of Prime Minister to Tony Blair, after his ‘approval rate’ hovered around the level of 30% for a long time. As for former USA President Bill Clinton, his lowest ever ‘approval rate’ within his 8-year terms of office was as high as 37%...”

• November 4, 2014 (Tuesday) 1pm to 2pm: Ratings of top 10 political groups