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Survey Findings on HKSAR Government’s Popularity in April 2019 Released by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at CUHK
A telephone survey was conducted from 18 to 26 April 2019 by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong to study the popularity of the HKSAR Government. A total of 707 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 34.7%. The sampling error is estimated at plus or minus 3.70 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
Major findings are summarised as follows:
Satisfaction with the HKSAR Government. According to the survey, 26.6% of the 707 respondents expressed satisfaction towards the HKSAR Government, 37.1% said they were dissatisfied, and 35.5% answered ‘in-between’. The corresponding figures for March 2019 were 28.9%, 34.1%, and 35.4%, respectively. The statistical analysis shows that the results for April 2019 were not significantly different from those of March 2019. When comparing the figures with that from the same month last year (i.e. April 2018), it was found that the percentage of satisfaction in April 2019 (26.6%) was obviously lower than that of April 2018 (31.2%). The difference in percentage distribution between April 2019 and April 2018 was statistically significant.
Rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam. The survey in April 2019 indicated that the performance rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam (with a point scale ranging from 0 to 100, 50 as the passing mark) stood at 51.0 on average, lower than the rating for March (53.0). But the statistical significance test (t-test) shows that the mean difference between the rating in April 2019 and the rating in March 2019 was not statistically significant. However, when comparing her current rating (51.0) with that of April 2018 (55.9), the mean difference of the two months was statistically significant.
Ratings of Three Secretaries. The ratings of the Chief Secretary for Administration (Matthew Cheung), Financial Secretary (Paul Chan) and Secretary for Justice (Teresa Cheng) in April 2019 were 47.7, 39.9 and 36.5 respectively. The corresponding figures in March 2019 were 49.4, 40.3 and 38.1. The comparison of the ratings of the three Secretaries between April 2019 and March 2019 shows that no statistically significant differences were found. When their ratings in April 2019 were compared with the respective figures in April 2018, statistically significant differences were found for them.
Trust in the HKSAR Government. As of April 2019, 26.7% of the respondents showed trust in the HKSAR Government and 28.3% expressed distrust; 43.3% answered ‘in-between’. The results in March 2019 were 29.6%, 27.0%, and 40.5%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in trust in the HKSAR Government between April 2019 and March 2019. Comparing the figure in the current survey with those of April 2018, it shows that the percentage of trust in the HKSAR Government in April 2019 (26.7%) was lower than that of April 2018 (32.7%), and statistically significant difference was found between these two months.
Trust in the Central Government. Regarding the level of trust in the Central Government in April 2019, 22.0% said they trusted it, 39.5% answered the opposite, and 33.2% said ‘in-between’. The respective figures from March were 23.6%, 37.6%, and 31.9%. Statistically significant differences were not found between April 2019 and March 2019. Moreover, the difference between the percentages in April 2019 (Trust: 22.0%; Distrust: 39.5%) and the percentages in April 2018 (Trust: 21.3%; Distrust: 41.7%) was also not statistically significant.
