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A telephone survey was conducted from 20 to 23 October 2015 by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong to gauge public views on Hong Kong’s core values.  732 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 41.0%.  The sampling error is + or –3.62% at a confidence level of 95%. 

Major findings are summarized as follows: 

In the survey, the respondents were asked to rate their level of agreement towards 11 randomly presented Hong Kong’s core values, including (1) freedom, (2) rule of law, (3) democracy, (4) just and corruption-free, (5) diversity and tolerance, (6) family, (7) social stability, (8) peace and benevolence, (9) level playing field, (10) market economy, and (11) safeguard individual property.  They were asked to choose among ‘strongly disagree’, ‘disagree’, ‘agree’, and ‘strongly agree’.  Over 90% of the 732 respondents strongly agreed or agreed that ‘rule of law’ (92.9%) and ‘just and corruption-free’ (91.5%) are the core values of Hong Kong.  While 88.1% and 86.2% of the respondents agreed that ‘freedom’ and ‘safeguard individual property’ are the core values respectively, the corresponding proportion of ‘level playing field’, ‘stability’, and ‘family’ were 85.2%, 84.7%, and 81.6%.  Over three-quarter also agreed that ‘peace and benevolence’ (79.5%), ‘democracy’ (78.6%), ‘diversity and tolerance’ (78.3%), and ‘market economy’ (75.8%) are the core values. 

Respondents were also requested to choose the most important one among the 11 Hong Kong’s core values.  A larger proportion of them reported ‘rule of law’ (23.9%) and ‘freedom’ (20.1%).  While 13.8% chose ‘just and corruption-free’, 9.1% opted for ‘democracy’ and 6.9% considered ‘social stability’.  The respective proportion of ‘peace and benevolence’, ‘diversity and tolerance’, ‘market economy’, ‘level playing field’, ‘family’, and ‘safeguard individual property’, were 4.3%, 3.7%, 2.8%, 2.5%, 2.5%, and 1.7%.