HKU POP releases a Budget instant pollBack

The Public Opinion Programme (POP) at The University of Hong Kong interviewed 610 Hong Kong people last night (25 February) by means of a random telephone survey conducted by real interviewers. After excluding those respondents who said they had heard nothing of the Budget, this year's instant survey shows that people's instant appraisal of the Third Budget of CY Leung's administration is rather positive, with a net satisfaction of positive 28 percentage points, representing a significant increase from the instant survey conducted last year this time, and also registering a new high since 2010. As for the rating of the Budget, this year's instant survey gives a rating of 60.2 marks, which is also a new high since 2010. In terms of personal popularity, both the support rating and net approval rate of John Tsang have increased after his Budget Talk, meaning that he has gained popularity from the Budget which is different from what happened in last two years. Further analysis shows that respondents of age 50 or above are most satisfied with the Budget, and support John Tsang most. How people's reaction will change after knowing more about the Budget will have to be revealed by our next follow-up survey. The maximum sampling error of all percentages is +/-4 percentage points at 95% confidence level, while the sampling errors of rating figures and net values need another calculation. The response rate of the survey is 67%.

[1] The address of the "HKU POP SITE" is http://hkupop.pori.hk, journalists can check out the details of the survey there.
[2] The sample size of this survey is 610 successful interviews, not 610 x 67.4% response rate. In the past, many media made this mistake.
[3] The maximum sampling error of all percentages is +/-4 percentage points at 95% confidence level, while the sampling error of rating figure and net value needs another calculation. "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. When quoting these figures, journalists can state "sampling error of rating not more than +/-1.8, sampling error of percentages not more than +/-4%, and sampling error of net values not more than +/-6% at 95% confidence level". Because POP introduced "rim weighting" in 2014, during the transition period, whether changes in various figures are beyond sampling errors are based on tests using the same weighting methods. That is, to test whether the first set of figures collected in 2014 is significantly different from that of the previous survey, both sets of data are rim weighted before testing, instead of using simple computation of the published figures.
[4] Because of sampling errors in conducting the survey(s) and the rounding procedures in processing the data, the figures cannot be too precise, and the totals may not be completely accurate. Therefore, when quoting percentages of the survey(s), journalists should refrain from reporting decimal places, but when quoting the rating figures, one decimal place can be used.
[5] The data of this survey is collected by means of random telephone interviews conducted by real interviewers, not by any interactive voice system (IVS). If a research organization uses "computerized random telephone survey" to camouflage its IVS operation, it should be considered unprofessional.

Since 1992, POP has been conducting Policy Address instant surveys every year. From 1998 onwards, we expanded our instant surveys to cover the Budget Speeches. In free and democratic societies, instant surveys are indispensable sources of free information. Combined with appropriate follow-up surveys, and in parallel to expert analyses, they give a multi-dimensional picture of opinion development. They are an important part of a society's interactive development. Starting 2008, we split up previous years' instant survey into two surveys. In our first survey, we measure people's overall appraisal of the Budget, their rating of the Budget, their change in confidence towards Hong Kong's future, and FS's popularity. In our second survey, we focus on people's reactions towards different government proposals, their satisfaction with the government's fiscal policies, and other relevant issues. Starting 2011, we revised our design to concentrate on people's appraisal of the Budget and FS's popularity in our instant survey, and move the remaining questions to our follow-up survey. There is no change to our operation this year.

POP today releases the latest findings of the Budget instant poll. 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. Herewith the contact information of various surveys:

[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.

People's satisfaction figures with this year's Budget are summarized below together with the previous findings:

[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.
[8] Excluding respondents who did not answer this question because they had not heard of / did not have any knowledge of the Budget, while "recognition rates" used to indicate people's knowledge level further exclude those who answered "don't know / hard to say". Sampling errors of ratings are calculated according to the distribution of the scores collected. Because of the smaller sample size, the sampling error has increased accordingly.
[9] 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.
[10] 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.

After excluding those respondents who said they did not have any knowledge of this year's Budget, this year's instant survey showed that 45% were satisfied with it, 18% were dissatisfied and 28% said "half-half", giving a net satisfaction rate of positive 28 percentage points. The mean score is 3.3, which is in between "half-half" and"quite satisfied" in general. Meanwhile, the average rating registered for the Budget was 60.2 marks, with a recognition rate of 79%.

Figures on various Financial Secretaries' popularity before and after their Budget Speeches since 2001^[11] are summarized as follows:

[11] FS rating was introduced in our Budget instant poll in 2001, while approval rate was introduced in 2005. This table therefore starts from 2001.
[12] This was the first Budget by Henry Tang after Donald Tsang became the Acting Chief Executive.
[13] These questions only use the concerned sub-samples for the tracking surveys between 2006 and 2010.
[14] All errors 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. Questions using only sub-samples would have bigger sample error. Sampling errors of ratings are calculated according to the distribution of the scores collected.
[15] The frequency of FS rating and approval rate was different before November 2005.
[16] 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.
[17] This was the first Budget by John Tsang after CY Leung became the Chief Executive.

The survey showed that the latest popularity rating of FS John Tsang after his Budget Speech was 61.0 marks, with an approval and disapproval rates of 58% and 14% respectively, giving a net approval of positive 44 percentage points.

In the survey, we also asked respondents for their age. If they were reluctant to give their exact age, they could give us a range. According to their answers, we grouped them into 18-29, 30-49, and 50 years or older. Herewith further analysis of public's satisfaction rate of the Budget, and John Tsang's rating and approval rates by respondents' age:

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

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

Frank Lee, Research Manager of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "Based on those who understand the Budget, our survey finds that people's instant appraisal of the Third Budget of CY Leung's administration is rather positive, with a net satisfaction of positive 28 percentage points, representing a significant increase from the instant survey conducted last year this time, and also registering a new high since 2010. As for the rating of the Budget, this year's instant survey gives a rating of 60.2 marks, which is also a new high since 2010. In terms of personal popularity, both the support rating and net approval rate of John Tsang have increased after his Budget Talk, meaning that he has gained popularity from the Budget which is different from what happened in last two years. Further analysis shows that respondents of age 50 or above are most satisfied with the Budget, and support John Tsang most. How people's reaction will change after knowing more about the Budget will have to be revealed by our next follow-up survey."

• March 3, 2015 (Tuesday) 1pm to 2pm: Budget first follow-up survey