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Survey Findings on HKSAR Government’s Popularity in February 2018Released by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at CUHK
A telephone survey was conducted from 23 to 27 February 2018 by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong to study the popularity of the HKSAR Government. 809 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 37.8%. The sampling error is estimated at plus or minus 3.44 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
Major findings are summarized as follows:
Satisfaction with the HKSAR Government. According to the current survey, 32.4% of the 809 respondents expressed satisfaction towards the HKSAR Government, 28.2% said they were dissatisfied, and 38.8% answered ‘in-between’. The corresponding figures for January 2018 were 31.3%, 31.2%, and 36.5%, respectively. Statistical analysis shows that the results for February 2018 were not significantly different from those of January. When comparing the figures with the same month of last year (i.e. February 2017), it is found that the percentage of satisfaction in February 2018 (32.4%) was much higher than that of February 2017 (23.3%) and the difference in percentage distribution between February 2018 and February 2017 was also found to be statistically significant.
Rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam. The current survey showed that the performance rating of the Chief Executive Carrie Lam (with a point scale ranging from 0 to 100 with 50 as the passing mark) stood at 55.6 on average, whereas the rating for January was 54.7. However, the difference was not statistically significant.
Ratings of Three Secretaries. The ratings of Chief Secretary for Administration (Matthew Cheung), Financial Secretary (Paul Chan) and Secretary for Justice (Teresa Cheng) in February 2018 were 53.3, 49.6 and 38.6 respectively. The corresponding figures for January were 52.6, 48.0 and 38.9. Comparing the ratings difference between February 2018 and January 2018, no statistically significant differences were observed in the ratings of Matthew Cheung, Paul Chan and Teresa Cheng.
Trust in the HKSAR Government. As of February 2018, 34.2% of the respondents showed trust in the HKSAR Government and 23.4% expressed distrust; 40.8% answered ‘in-between’. The results for January 2018 were 34.2%, 24.9%, and 39.4%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in trust in the HKSAR Government between February 2018 and January 2018. However, when comparing the figures with those of February 2017, it is showed that the percentage of trust in the HKSAR Government in February 2018 (34.2%) was higher than that of February 2017 (28.1%). Statistically significant differences were also observed between these two months.
Trust in the Central Government. Regarding the level of trust in the Central Government in February 2018, 24.8% said they trusted it, 39.6% answered the opposite, and 29.6% said ‘in-between’. The respective figures from January were 25.6%, 37.9%, and 31.5%, respectively. However, no statistically significant differences were found between January 2018 and February 2018. Again, the difference between February 2018 and February 2017 was also found to be statistically insignificant.
It is noteworthy that the survey was conducted before the announcement of the new government budget and the impact of the budget on the government popularity could not be fully reflected in this survey.
