HKU POP SITE releases the latest findings on people's satisfaction with the current social conditions and their opinions towards Taiwan issuesBack
| Press Release on December 16, 2003 |
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The Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong today releases on schedule via the "HKU POP SITE" (http://hkupop.pori.hk) the latest findings on people's satisfaction with the current social conditions and their opinions towards Taiwan issues. This is the last release this year of these series of surveys. Half-yearly average figures of these surveys are available in our website, recent figures are summarized as follows: |
| Date of survey | 17-19/3 | 13-18/6 | 8-10/9 | 10-14/12 | Latest change |
| Sample base | 1,068 | 1,043 | 1,021 | 1,059 | -- |
| Overall response rate | 71.5% | 68.0% | 70.9% | 63.5% | -- |
| Sampling error of percentages (at 95% conf. level)* | +/- 3% | +/- 3% | +/- 3% | +/- 3% | -- |
| Most concerned with economic problems | 72% | 72% | 74% | 65% | -9% |
| Most concerned with social problems | 19% | 18% | 13% | 22% | +9% |
| Most concerned with political problems | 4% | 5% | 4% | 6% | +2% |
| Current economic condition: Dissatisfaction rate** | 84% | 82% | 68% | 62% | -6% |
| Current economic condition: Satisfaction rate** | 5% | 4% | 8% | 11% | +3% |
| Current political condition: Dissatisfaction rate** | 34% | 48% | 47% | 46% | -1% |
| Current political condition: Satisfaction rate** | 28% | 19% | 16% | 15% | -1% |
| Current social condition: Dissatisfaction rate** | 48% | 46% | 44% | 42% | -2% |
| Current social condition: Satisfaction rate** | 27% | 26% | 26% | 24% | -2% |
| Taiwan independence: Opposition rate | 72% | 66% | 65% | 74% | +9% |
| Taiwan independence: Support rate | 13% | 16% | 17% | 11% | -6% |
| Confidence in cross-strait reunification | 50% | 46% | 30% | 46% | +16% |
| No-confidence in cross-strait reunification | 34% | 37% | 48% | 36% | -12% |
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* "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. |
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Latest figures showed that 65% of the respondents were most concerned with economic problems these days, 22% with social problems, while 6% attached their greatest concern to political problems. Meanwhile, people's dissatisfaction rates with the current economic, political and social conditions were 62%, 46% and 42% correspondingly. On the other hand, 74% of the respondents opposed the independence of Taiwan, while 46% were confident in the ultimate reunification across the strait. |
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Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, made the following analysis: "The survey has found that people's dissatisfaction with Hong Kong's economic condition has subsided from almost 85% at its peak to around 60%. Their dissatisfaction with the political condition, however, has remained at around 45% since the middle of the year. The political demands sparked off by the controversy surrounding Article 23 of the Basic Law have still to be answered. At the other front, people's objection to Taiwan's gaining independence has increased significantly over the last three months, by 9 percentage points, obviously in response to recent independent movements in Taiwan. Hong Kong people's confidence in cross-strait reunification, however, has surged by 16 percentage points, probably due to the positive effect of Premier Wen Jiabao's recent speeches." |
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POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday at 2 pm via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the forthcoming week. We will review and adjust this operation regularly. According to our schedule, the date and time of our next release will be December 18, 2003, Thursday, at 2pm, results of the post-election survey on the District Council Election will be released. Then, on December 23, 2003, Tuesday, at 2 pm, we will release the latest results on people's expectation of the seventh policy address of CE Tung Chee-hwa, as well as people's ethnic identity. |
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Shall anyone have any question regarding the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site, members of the POP Team will be happy to answer them, but we will not further comment on the findings. Shall any person or journalist have any other questions, please email them to us at <[email protected]>. The Director of Public Opinion Programme would answer them as soon as possible. We will keep such an arrangement under constant review, suggestions most welcome. Please note that everything carried in the POP Site does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong. Dr Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors. |
