HKU POP releases the latest rankings of political figuresBack

Press Release on May 17, 2016

| Detailed Findings (People's Most Familiar Political Figures) |

Special Announcement

To facilitate academic study and rational discussion, Public Opinion Programme (POP) at The University of Hong Kong has already released for public examination some time ago via the “HKU POP SITE” (http://hkupop.pori.hk) the raw data of all 97 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. Please follow normal academic standards when using or citing such data.

Abstract

POP interviewed 1,000 Hong Kong people between May 3 and 5 by means of a random telephone survey conducted by real interviewers. According to our latest survey, Leung Chun-ying continues to be the most visible political figure in Hong Kong. Leung Kwok-hung ranks the 2nd while Carrie Lam Jasper Tsang ranks the 3rd. Compared to 6 months ago, all 10 figures remain on the “top 10” list. Leung Kwok-hung has gone up 3 positions to rank the 2nd, Donald Tsang has gone down 4 positions to rank the 8th, while the rankings of other figures have not changed much. The ups and downs within the latest list should be good reflections of our changing political environment. If we would like to focus on long term development, we can use the overall rankings accumulated over five years. Figures show that Leung Chun-ying, Leung Kwok-hung, Donald Tsang, Wong Yuk-man and Regina Ip are people’s most familiar political figures in the long run. It should be noted, however, that our ranking of “people’s most familiar political figures” is based on our surveys which requested respondents to name local political figures without prompting. This kind of familiarity measurement is not the same as prompted ratings. In other words, those high on the list may not be the most supported figures, while those lower may have a different ranking if we use a prompting method. However, those who scored best in unprompted surveys are no doubt the most well-known political figures in Hong Kong. The maximum sampling error of percentages of people’s most familiar political figures is +/-4 percentage points at 95% confidence level. The response rate of this survey is 70%.

Points to note:

[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 the survey on people’s most familiar political figures, the sample size is 1,000 successful cases, not 1,000 x 69.7% response rate. In the past, many media made this mistake.

[3] The maximum sampling error of percentages is +/-4 percentage points 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. When quoting these figures, journalists can state “sampling error of percentages not more than +/-4%, at 95% confidence level”.

[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.

Latest Figures

POP today releases on schedule via the POP Site the survey results of people’s most familiar political figures. 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 2015 year-end and the educational attainment (highest level attended) distribution collected in the 2011 Census. Herewith the contact information of survey on people’s most familiar political figures:

Date of survey	Overall sample size	Response rate	Sampling error of percentages^[6]
3-5/5/2016	1,000	69.7%	+/-3%

[6] 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.

This survey on people’s most familiar political figures has been conducted for many years, with results initially released through our publication POP Express until October 2006 when we began to release them online. Between 1994 and 2005, the survey was conducted and released in the form of “top 10 political figures” using our usual “top 10” or “top 5” series survey design, which involved both naming and rating stages. Starting from October 2005, we simplified our “top 10 political figures” survey by just recording and analyzing the “naming” results, because we have already developed over time numerous rating surveys covering CE, government officials, members of Legislative and Executive Councils, and so on. As for the rating part, we only conduct supplementary rating surveys to cover those listed in the top 10 political figures but not covered in other rating surveys. Take our latest survey as an example, our supplementary rating survey of Donald Tsang, Tung Chee-hwa and Ko Wing-man will be conducted later and the results will be uploaded onto our POP Site in due course. Moreover, in our presentation of findings, different from the other “top 10” rating series, we introduced rankings from 1 to 50 for “people’s most familiar political figures”, as well as average accumulative rankings calculated from the past 10 surveys spanning over about five years, in order to indicate the ups-and-downs of these political figures in the long run. Please refer to our POP Site for details. Herewith the result of our latest survey on “people’s most familiar political figures”, other rankings beyond the “Top 10” can be found in the POP Site:

Date of survey	31/10-5/11/14		8-14/5/15		2-5/11/15		*3-5/5/16*		*Average ranking over the past 10 survey* s *^[9]*
Sample base	1,008		1,029^[8]		1,008^[8]		*1,000^[8]*		--
Overall response rate	64.8%		67.4%		66.4%		*69.7%*		--
Sampling error of percentages (at 95% confidence level)^[7]	+/-3%		+/-3%		+/-3%		+/-3%		--
Latest finding / Rank	%	Rank	%	Rank	%	Rank	%	*Rank*	--
Leung Chun-ying	36%	1	57%	1	39%^[1¹^]	1	*41%+/-4%*	1	*1.8*
Leung Kwok-hung	27%	3	31%	3	22%^[1²^]	5	*36%+/-4%*	2	*2.8*
Carrie Lam	31%	2	32%	2	39%^[1¹^]	2	*33%+/-4%*	3	*7.9*
Jasper Tsang	20%^[1⁰^]	7	21%	7	24%	3	*28%+/-4%*	4	*7.0*
Wong Yuk-man	20%^[1⁰^]	6	18%	9	20%	7	*24%+/-3%*	5	*5.8*
Regina Ip	23%	4	22%	6	18%^[1³^]	8	*21%+/-3%^[1* ⁴ ^]	6	*5.9*
John Tsang	12%	14	16%	12	22%^[1²^]	6	*21%+/-3%^[1* ⁴ ^]	7	*12.0*
Donald Tsang	14%	9	23%	5	23%	4	*18%+/-3%*	8	*4.7*
Tung Chee-hwa	21%	5	24%	4	18%^[1³^]	9	*17%+/-3%*	9	*9.9*
Ko Wing-man	11%	16	11%	17	17%	10	*14%+/-3%*	10	*23.6*

[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 percentages not more than +/-4% at 95% confidence level” when quoting the above figures. The error margin of previous survey can be found at the POP Site.

[8] The sub-sample size in November 2014 was 547, while that in May 2015 was 671, that in November 2015 was 650, and that in May 2016 was 617.

[9] The earliest of the past 10 surveys was conducted during October 7 to 11, 2011. For each survey, those who ranked 50th or beyond and those not on the list are counted as 50th in our calculation of average rankings.

[10] Based on the figures in November 2014 survey, the percentages of respondents who named Wong Yuk-man and Jasper Tsang were 20.2% and 19.6% respectively, so Wong Yuk-man and Jasper Tsang ranked the 6th and 7th.

[11] Based on the figures in November 2015 survey, the percentages of respondents who named Leung Chun-ying and Carrie Lam were 39.15% and 39.13% respectively, so Leung Chun-ying and Carrie Lam ranked the 1st and 2nd.

[12] Based on the figures in November 2015 survey, the percentages of respondents who named Leung Kwok-hung and John Tsang were 22.1% and 21.5% respectively, so Leung Kwok-hung and John Tsang ranked the 5th and 6th.

[13] Based on the figures in November 2015 survey, the percentages of respondents who named Regina Ip and Tung Chee-hwa were 18.4% and 18.3% respectively, so Regina Ip and Tung Chee-hwa ranked the 8th and 9th.

[14] Based on the figures of the latest survey, the percentages of respondents who named Regina Ip and John Tsang were 21.5% and 20.6% respectively, so Regina Ip and John Tsang ranked the 6th and 7th.

In our naming survey conducted from early May, respondents could name, unaided, up to 10 political figures whom they knew best. Leung Chun-ying, Leung Kwok-hung and Carrie Lam were the top three. The corresponding percentages of respondents who named these figures were 41%, 36% and 33%. Jasper Tsang, Wong Yuk-man, Regina Ip and John Tsang occupied the 4th to 7th places, with 28%, 24%, 21% and 21% of respondents naming them respectively. The 8th to 10th ranks fell to Donald Tsang, Tung Chee-hwa, and Ko Wing-man respectively, and percentage of respondents who named these figures were 18%, 17% and 14%. Please refer to the relevant table for the rest of the list. For easy reference, POP Site has already displayed the results of all naming surveys conducted since March 1997.

Herewith some of the results of our “people’s most familiar political figures” surveys accumulated over past 10 surveys spanning over about five years:

3-10/5/2011──2-5/11/2015 ^[1 ⁵ ^]						*7-11/10/2011* ──*3-5/5/2016* ^[ ¹⁵ ^]
Overall rank	Political figures	Av. rank for 10 surveys	Over all rank	Political figures	Av. rank for 10 surveys	Overall rank	Political figures	Av. rank for 10 surveys	Over all rank	Political figures	Av. rank for 10 surveys
1	Leung Kwok-hung	3.0	11	John Tsang	12.3	1	*Leung Chun-ying*	*1.8*	11	*Emily Lau*	*12.4*
2	Donald Tsang	4.0	12	Emily Lau	12.4	2	*Leung Kwok-hung*	*2.8*	12	*Henry Tang*	*12.4*
3	Leung Chun-ying	4.0	13	Carrie Lam	12.6	3	*Donald Tsang*	*4.7*	13	*Albert Ho*	*12.7*
4	Regina Ip	5.6	14	Martin Lee	13.8	4	*Wong Yuk-man*	*5.8*	14	*Martin Lee*	*14.7*
5	Wong Yuk-man	5.8	15	Lee Cheuk-yan	14.1	5	*Regina Ip*	*5.9*	15	*Alan Leong*	*15.5*
6	Jasper Tsang	7.3	16	Rita Fan	15.3	6	*Jasper Tsang*	*7.0*	16	*Lee* *Cheuk-yan*	*15.5*
7	Anson Chan	9.7	17	Alan Leong	15.7	7	*Carrie Lam*	*7.9*	17	*Rita Fan*	*15.8*
8	Henry Tang	10.7	18	Tam Yiu-chung	16.5	8	*Tung Chee-hwa*	*9.9*	18	*Tam Yiu-chung*	*16.4*
9	Tung Chee-hwa	11.2	19	Audrey Eu	17.7	9	*Anson Chan*	*10.1*	19	*Audrey Eu*	*18.7*
10	Albert Ho	12.1	20	Albert Chan	19.2	10	*John Tsang*	*12.0*	20	*Albert Chan*	*20.3*

[15] For each survey, those who ranked 50th or beyond and those not on the list are counted as 50th in our calculation of average rankings.

Based on the results of the past 10 surveys, Leung Chun-ying has the highest overall rank with an average ranking of 1.8. The overall ranks of Leung Kwok-hung and Donald Tsang come 2nd and 3rd respectively, with average rankings of 2.8 and 4.7. The overall ranks of Wong Yuk-man and Regina Ip come 4th and 5th respectively, with average rankings of 5.8 and 5.9. The overall ranks of Jasper Tsang and Carrie Lam come 6th and 7th with average rankings of 7.0 and 7.9 respectively. The 8th to 10th overall ranks go to Tung Chee-hwa, Anson Chan and John Tsang with corresponding average rankings of 9.9, 10.1 and 12.0.

Opinion Daily

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 2 to 5, 2015, while this survey was conducted from May 3 to 5, 2016. 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.

25/4/16	Airport Authority submits a report on Leung Chung-yan's baggage incident to the government.
11/3/16	The $19.6 billion extra funding request for the express rail link is passed by a show of hands by the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council.
25/2/16	The copyright bill will be shelved if it is not passed by the Legislative Council next week, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Gregory So Kam-leung announces.
24/2/16	Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah releases the 2016-2017 Budget.
21/2/16	Police arrests the spokesman of Hong Kong Indigenous Ray Wong Toi-yeung.
4/2/16	The meeting of Copyright Amendment Bill in Legislative Council is adjourned for the fourth time due to low attendance.
2/2/16	The Government takes the additional funding request for high-speed railway directly to the Legislative Council Finance Committee.
13/1/16	CY Leung delivers the 2016 Policy Address.
23/12/15	CY Leung pays a duty visit to Beijing.
22/12/15	Government launches public consultation on retirement protection.

Commentary

Frank Lee, Research Manager of Public Opinion Programme, observed, “The purpose of our ranking of political figures is to show the changing political ecology by studying the ups and downs of people’s familiarity with these figures over time. According to our latest survey, Leung Chun-ying continues to be the most visible political figure in Hong Kong. Leung Kwok-hung ranks the 2nd while Carrie Lam Jasper Tsang ranks the 3rd. Compared to 6 months ago, all 10 figures remain on the ‘top 10’ list. Leung Kwok-hung has gone up 3 positions to rank the 2nd, Donald Tsang has gone down 4 positions to rank the 8th, while the rankings of other figures have not changed much. The ups and downs within the latest list should be good reflections of our changing political environment. If we would like to focus on long term development, we can use the overall rankings accumulated over five years. Figures show that Leung Chun-ying, Leung Kwok-hung, Donald Tsang, Wong Yuk-man and Regina Ip are people’s most familiar political figures in the long run. It should be noted, however, that our ranking of ‘people’s most familiar political figures’ is based on our surveys which requested respondents to name local political figures without prompting. This kind of familiarity measurement is not the same as prompted ratings. In other words, those high on the list may not be the most supported figures, while those lower may have a different ranking if we use a prompting method. However, those who scored best in unprompted surveys are no doubt the most well-known political figures in Hong Kong. As for the reasons affecting the ups and downs of these rankings, we leave it to our readers to form their own judgment using the detailed records displayed in our ‘Opinion Daily’.”

Future Release (Tentative)

May 24, 2016 (Tuesday) 1pm to 2pm: People’s feelings towards different governments and peoples