HKU POP SITE releases the latest figures on subjective social and legal indicatorsBack


Press Release on May 3, 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 figures on subjective social and legal indicators. As a general practice, all figures have been weighted according to the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population obtained from the Population Census. Recent figures of the indicators are summarized as follows:

 
 Date of survey 19-22/4/04 19-21/7/04 18-21/10/04 17-19/1/05 18-21/4/05 Latest change
 Sample base 1,029 1,031 1,011 1,022 1,012 ---
 Overall response rate 61.1% 63.8% 63.3% 64.8% 66.7% ---
 Sampling error of indicators(at 95% confidence level)* +/- 0.14 +/- 0.14 +/- 0.12 +/- 0.14 +/- 0.12 ---
 Sampling error of personal rating (at 95% confidence level)* +/- 1.2 +/- 1.6 +/- 1.2 +/- 1.6 +/- 1.4 ---
 Degree of freedom 6.96 7.15 7.17 7.54 7.44 -0.10
 Degree of civilization 7.05 7.18 7.13 7.24 7.32 +0.08
 Degree of public order 6.68 6.79 6.85 7.18 7.18 --
 Degree of corruption-free practices 6.83 6.80 7.04 7.07 7.15 +0.08
 Degree of stability 6.41 6.50 6.67 6.79 6.94 +0.15
 Degree of efficiency 6.37 6.51 6.57 6.73 6.93 +0.20
 Degree of prosperity 6.06 6.48 6.29 6.60 6.74 +0.14
 Degree of social welfare sufficiency 6.02 6.21 6.00 6.31 6.48 +0.17
 Degree of equality 6.08 6.07 6.18 6.15 6.47 +0.32
 Degree of fairness 5.62 5.70 5.90 5.52 6.29 +0.77
 Degree of democracy 5.63 5.97 6.02 6.08 6.27 +0.19
 Impartiality of the courts 6.82 6.90 6.77 7.05 7.04 -0.01
 Fairness of the judicial system 6.25 6.54 6.59 6.72 6.75 +0.03
 Compliance with the rule of law 6.27 6.42 6.71 6.73 6.70 -0.03
 Support rating of Andrew Li 58.0 57.4 60.5 62.0 62.7 +0.70

* "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.

 

Regarding the social indicators, results obtained in mid-April showed that, on a scale of 0-10, Hong Kong's degree of "freedom" and "civilization" scored the highest ratings with 7.44 and 7.32 marks respectively. "Public order" and "corruption-free practices" followed behind, with respective scores of 7.18 and 7.15 marks. "Stability" and "efficiency" formed the next tier, scoring 6.94 and 6.93 marks respectively. Attaining 6.74 marks, "prosperity" occupied the 7th rank. Meanwhile, the ratings of "social welfare sufficiency" and "equality" were 6.48 and 6.47 marks correspondingly. Last of all, "fairness" and "democracy" indicators scored 6.29 and 6.27 marks respectively.

 

As for the legal indicators, people's latest appraisal of the impartiality of the courts scored 7.04 marks, that of the fairness of the judicial system was 6.75 marks, while the rating of the compliance with the rule of law scored 6.70 marks. Meanwhile, the latest popularity rating of Chief Justice Andrew Li Kowk-nang, a representative figure of the judicial system, was 62.7 marks, on a scale of 0-100.

 

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "Riding on the upward trend of government popularity, 11 of the 15 subjective indicators, including the popularity rating of Chief Justice, have improved over the past 3 months. As the personal background of the Chief Executive changed from that of a businessman to that of a civil servant, the fairness indicator has made a significant improvement of 0.77 marks. Its bottom place is now taken over by the democracy indicator. Another point to note is that the rule of law indicator has not followed the general trend, it dropped 3 places in terms of ranking. The reinterpretation of the Basic Law has, no doubt, left its mark."

 

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 May 10 2005, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest figures on the popularity of Acting CE Donald Tsang and Principal Officials under the accountability system will be released.

 

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.