HKU POP SITE releases latest findings of people's appraisal of society's current conditions and their ethnic identityBack


Press Release on December 20, 2005
 

People's appraisal of society's current conditions

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 and their ethnic identity. As a general practice, our figures have been weighted according to the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population obtained from the 2001 Population Census. Recent figures of people's appraisal of society's current conditions are first summarized as follows:

 
  Date of survey  6-9/12/04   14-17/3/05   6-8/6/05   26-29/9/05   9-14/12/05   Latest change 
  Sample base  1,007   1,017   1,029   1,027   1,017   -- 
  Overall response rate  67.8%   63.5%   66.0%   61.2%   67.7%   -- 
  Sampling error of percentages (at 95% conf. level)*  +/- 3%   +/- 3%   +/- 3%   +/- 3%   +/- 3%   -- 
  Sampling error of ratings(at 95% conf. level)*  --   +/- 0.14 @  +/- 0.14 @  +/- 0.14 @  +/- 0.14 @  -- 
  Most concerned with economic problems  59%   61%   61%   51%   54%   +3% 
  Most concerned with social problems  30%   21%   24%   42%   32%   -10% 
  Most concerned with political problems  6%   10%   6%   5%   8%   +3% 
  Rating on concern for economic problems  --   7.33   7.16   7.23   7.20   -0.03 
  Rating on concern for social problems  --   6.92   6.89   7.09   7.03   -0.06 
  Rating on concern for political problems  --   5.83   5.68   5.66   5.78   +0.12 
  Current economic condition: Satisfaction rate**  12%   27%   26%   35%   33%   -2% 
  Current economic condition: Dissatisfaction rate**  49%   31%   34%   29%   29%   -- 
  Current social condition: Satisfaction rate**  23%   33%   30%   46%   33%   -13% 
  Current social condition: Dissatisfaction rate**  38%   29%   33%   21%   26%   +5% 
  Current political condition: Satisfaction rate**  16%   21%   22%   42%   23%   -19% 
  Current political condition: Dissatisfaction rate**  42%   40%   36%   22%   36%   +14% 

* "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 were mis-typed.

 

The survey conducted in early December showed that 54% of the respondents were most concerned with economic problems, 32% with social problems, while 8% 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 7.20, 7.03 and 5.78 marks correspondingly. Meanwhile, people's satisfaction rates with the current economic, social and political conditions were 33%, 33% and 23% in respective order. 

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "Probably due to current arguments over the constitutional reform, there is a plunge of 19 percentage points in people's satisfaction with the current political condition, and 13 percentage points for social condition, back to the level registered shortly before and after Tsang became CE. People's satisfaction with the economic condition is more or less the same as that of 3 months ago. In terms of absolute figures, people are still more concerned with economic problems, then social problems, and then political problems. However, people's concern for the political problems has increased a lot over the past 3 months."
 
Hong Kong people's ethnic identity

Recent figures on Hong Kong people's sense of ethnic identity are summarized as follows:

 
  Date of survey  10-14/12/03   7-11/6/04   6-9/12/04   6-8/6/05   9-14/12/05   Latest change 
  Sample base  1,059   1,027   1,007   1,029   1,017   -- 
  Overall response rate  63.5%   66.9%   67.8%   66.0%   67.7%   -- 
  Sampling error of percentages (at 95% conf. level)*  +/- 3%   +/- 3%   +/- 3%   +/- 3%   +/- 3%   -- 
  Sampling error of ratings (at 95% conf. level)*  +/- 0.14   +/- 0.16   +/- 0.16   +/- 0.14   +/- 0.14   -- 
  Identified themselves as 「Hong Kong Citizens」  25%   28%   26%   24%   25%   +1% 
  Identified themselves as 「Chinese Citizens」  33%   33%   32%   36%   31%   -5% 
  Identified themselves as 「Hong Kong People」 in broad sense  48%   49%   49%   45%   51%   +6% 
  Identified themselves as 「Chinese People」 in broad sense  48%   47%   48%   51%   48%   -3% 
  Rating of strength of 「Hong Kong Citizens」 identity  7.41   7.54   7.54   7.77   7.91   +0.14 
  Rating of strength of 「Chinese Citizens」 identity  7.52   7.48   7.47   7.56   7.73   +0.17 

* "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 asked to make a choice among 4 given identities, namely, "Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Citizen" and "Hong Kong Chinese Citizen", 25% of the respondents identified themselves as "Hong Kong Citizens", 31% as "Chinese Citizens", 27% as "Chinese Hong Kong Citizens", while 17% identified themselves as "Hong Kong Chinese Citizens". In other words, 51% of the respondents identified themselves as "Hong Kong People" in the broader sense (i.e. either as "Hong Kong Citizens" or "Chinese Hong Kong Citizens"), whereas another 48% identified themselves as "Chinese People" in the broader sense (i.e. either as "Chinese Citizens" or "Hong Kong Chinese Citizens").

 

Because concepts of "Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Citizen" and "Hong Kong Chinese Citizen" may overlap with each other, and making a one-in-four choice may not reflect the actual strengths of one's ethnic identities, POP has therefore conducted parallel tests on the strengths of people's separate identities as "Hong Kong Citizens" and "Chinese Citizens" using a scale of 0-10. The latest ratings registered in early December for "Hong Kong Citizens" and "Chinese Citizens" were 7.91 and 7.73 marks respectively.

 

Robert Chung observed, "Our rating figures show that the strength of Hong Kong people's self-identification as 'Hong Kong Citizens' and 'Chinese Citizens' have both increased over the past six months. However, percentage-wise, slightly more people are identifying themselves as 'Hong Kong people' than 'Chinese people' in the broader sense."

 
News about the POP Site

The POP Site will tomorrow publish a column article written by Robert Chung, Director of POP, entitled "Let Public Opinion Break the Deadlock". The article will discuss ways how to get out of the present standoff in constitutional debates. The article would be published tomorrow morning. Reports are welcome.

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. Since next Tuesday is a public holiday, the date and time of our next release will be brought forward to December 22, 2005, Thursday, at 2 pm, when the latest figures of people's opinions towards Taiwan issues will be released. We will review and adjust our operation regularly.

 

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.