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Survey Findings on HKSAR Government’s Popularity in December 2018 Released by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at CUHK
A telephone survey was conducted from 11 to 17 December 2018 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 708 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 37.3%. The sampling error is estimated at plus or minus 3.68 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
Major findings are summarised as follows:
Satisfaction with the HKSAR Government. According to the survey, 28.8% of the 708 respondents expressed satisfaction towards the HKSAR Government, 33.9% said they were dissatisfied, and 36.3% answered ‘in-between’. The corresponding figures for November 2018 were 28.8%, 32.5%, and 37.7%, respectively. The statistical analysis shows that the results for December 2018 were not significantly different from those of November. When comparing the figures with that from the same month last year (i.e. December 2017), it was found that the percentage of satisfaction in December 2018 (28.8%) was lower than that of December 2017 (34.4%). The difference in percentage distribution between December 2018 and December 2017 was statistically insignificant.
Rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam. The survey in December 2018 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 52.7 on average, lower than the rating for November (53.1). The statistical significance test (t-test) shows that the mean difference between the rating in December and the rating in November was not statistically significant. However, when comparing her current rating (52.7) with that of December 2017 (56.0), the mean difference of the two months is 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 December 2018 were 50.0, 43.2 and 39.3 respectively. The corresponding figures in November 2018 were 50.2, 42.2 and 40.9. The comparison of the ratings of the three Secretaries between December 2018 and November 2018 shows that no statistically significant differences were found. When their ratings in December 2018 were compared with the respective figures in December 2017, statistically significant differences were found for the Chief Secretary for Administration and the Financial Secretary (the Secretary for Justice, Teresa Cheng, was not in office in December 2017, so no comparison can be made).
Trust in the HKSAR Government. As of December 2018, 30.6% of the respondents showed trust in the HKSAR Government and 25.7% expressed distrust; 42.1% answered ‘in-between’. The results in November 2018 were 29.7%, 24.0%, and 43.1%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in trust in the HKSAR Government between December 2018 and November 2018. Comparing the figures in the current survey with those of December 2017, it shows that the percentage of trust in the HKSAR Government in December 2018 (30.6%) was lower than that of December 2017 (35.6%). No statistically significant difference was found between these two months.
Trust in the Central Government. Regarding the level of trust in the Central Government in December 2018, 22.8% said they trusted it, 40.9% answered the opposite, and 32.3% said ‘in-between’. The respective figures from November were 20.8%, 40.5%, and 35.1%. Statistically significant differences were not found between November 2018 and December 2018. Also, the difference between the percentages in December 2018 (Trust: 22.8%; Distrust: 40.9%) and the percentages in December 2017 (Trust: 26.2%; Distrust: 37.0%) was not statistically significant.
