HKU POP SITE releases latest findings of people's appraisal of society's current conditionsBack


Press Release on March 22, 2005
 

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 of people's appraisal of society's current conditions, including people's level of concern for different types of problems, their satisfaction with the current conditions, and their appraisal and expectation of political, economic and social conditions. The ratings of people's different concerns, as well as their appraisal and expectation are released online for the first time. Since 1992, POP has been tracking people's appraisal and expectation, but they were announced via press releases and our newsletter "POP Express" at first, and were gradually moved to our "POP Site". Some of the figures released online today can be dated back to 1992. As a general practice, our figures have been weighted according to the census results and are now summarized as follows:

 
 Date of survey 6-9/3/04 7-11/6/04 13-15/9/04 6-9/12/04 14-17/3/05 Latest change
 Sample base 1,030 1,027 1,023 1,007 1,017 --
 Overall response rate 65.0% 66.9% 64.4% 67.8% 63.5% --
 Sampling error of ratings(at 95% conf. level)*  -- -- -- -- +/- 0.14 @ --
 Sampling error of percentages (at 95% conf. level)*  +/- 3% +/- 3% +/- 3% +/- 3% +/- 3% --
 Most concerned with economic problems 64% 63% 65% 59% 61% +2%
 Most concerned with social problems 17% 20% 21% 30% 21% -9%
 Most concerned with political problems 10% 10% 8% 6% 10% +4%
 Rating on concern for economic problems -- -- -- -- 7.33 --
 Rating on concern for social problems -- -- -- -- 6.92 --
 Rating on concern for political problems -- -- -- -- 5.83 --
 Current economic condition: Satisfaction rate** 14% 16% 14% 12% 27% +15%
 Current economic condition: Dissatisfaction rate** 43% 55% 55% 49% 31% -18%
 Current social condition: Satisfaction rate** 23% 19% 28% 23% 33% +10%
 Current social condition: Dissatisfaction rate** 39% 45% 39% 38% 29% -9%
 Current political condition: Satisfaction rate** 14% 8% 17% 16% 21% +5%
 Current political condition: Dissatisfaction rate** 54% 60% 47% 42% 40% -2%
 Regarded economic condition has become better in the last 3 years 39% -- 45% -- 68% +23%
 Regarded economic condition has become worse in the last 3 years 37% -- 31% -- 12% -19%
 Regarded social condition has become better in the last 3 years 19% -- 28% -- 46% +18%
 Regarded social condition has become worse in the last 3 years 50% -- 43% -- 26% -17%
 Regarded political condition has become better in the last 3 years 14% -- 23% -- 34% +11%
 Regarded political condition has become worse in the last 3 years 56% -- 43% -- 32% -11%
 Expected economic condition to become better in 3 years' time 52% -- 49% -- 53% +4%
 Expected economic condition to become worse in 3 years' time 11% -- 16% -- 8% -8%
 Expected social condition to become better in 3 years' time 37% -- 38% -- 45% +7%
 Expected social condition to become worse in 3 years' time 23% -- 22% -- 13% -9%
 Expected political condition to become better in 3 years' time 28% -- 35% -- 38% +3%
 Expected political condition to become worse in 3 years' time 28% -- 24% -- 18% -6%

* "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.
** Collapsed from a 5-point scale.
@ Erratum: The error margins reported in the original release was mis-typed

 

The survey conducted in mid March showed that 61% of the respondents were most concerned with economic problems, 21% with social problems, while 10% attached their greatest concern to political problems. Using a scale of 0-10 marks, the ratings of people's concern over economic, social and political problems were 7.33, 6.92 and 5.83 marks correspondingly. Besides, 40% and 31% of respondents were dissatisfied with the current political and economic conditions respectively. Meanwhile, for the first time since March 2001, the satisfaction rate with the current social condition was higher than the dissatisfaction rate, being 33% and 29% respectively.

 

Regarding people's appraisal of Hong Kong's development, 68%, 46% and 34% respectively considered our economic, social and political conditions have improved in the last 3 years, 53%, 45% and 38% respectively believed they would become better in 3 years' time. All in all, these two sets of figures reveal that people considered Hong Kong to be moving steadily on an upward trend. From a macro perspective, people's appraisals of Hong Kong's economic and social conditions have gradually recovered since March 2003. As for the political condition, a significant improvement can also be observed since March 2004(see per-poll figures of the comparison indices in the POP Site).

 

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed: "Over the past three months, people's satisfaction with Hong Kong's political, economic and social conditions have all gone up. There is now a tug-of-war between positive and negative appraisals in general, although they are more negative than positive about the political and economic environments. Where future development is concerned, people are most optimistic about the economy, and then the social environment. They are only cautiously optimistic about future political development."

 

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. The date and time of our next release will be March 29, 2005, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest ratings of the top 10 political figures in Mainland China and Taiwan will be released.

 

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.