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Survey Findings on HKSAR Government’s Popularity in January 2019 Released by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at CUHK
A telephone survey was conducted from 16 to 22 January 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 711 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 38.5%. 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, 26.6% of the 711 respondents expressed satisfaction towards the HKSAR Government, 37.8% said they were dissatisfied, and 34.9% answered ‘in-between’. The corresponding figures for December 2018 were 28.8%, 33.9%, and 36.3%, respectively. The statistical analysis shows that the results for January 2019 were not significantly different from those of December 2018. When comparing the figures with that from the same month last year (i.e. January 2018), it was found that the percentage of satisfaction in January 2019 (26.6%) was lower than that of January 2018 (31.3%). The difference in percentage distribution between January 2019 and January 2018 was statistically significant.
Rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam. The survey in January 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 50.9 on average, lower than the rating for December (52.7). But the statistical significance test (t-test) shows that the mean difference between the rating in January 2019 and the rating in December 2018 was not statistically significant. However, when comparing her current rating (50.9) with that of January 2018 (54.7), 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 January 2019 were 48.0, 40.7 and 35.9 respectively. The corresponding figures in December 2018 were 50.0, 43.2 and 39.3. The comparison of the ratings of the three Secretaries between January 2019 and December 2018 shows that except the Chief Secretary for Administration, statistically significant differences were found for the Financial Secretary and the Secretary for Justice. When their ratings in January 2019 were compared with the respective figures in January 2018, statistically significant differences were found for all the three Secretaries.
Trust in the HKSAR Government. As of January 2019, 27.4% of the respondents showed trust in the HKSAR Government and 27.3% expressed distrust; 44.0% answered ‘in-between’. The results in December 2018 were 30.6%, 25.7%, and 42.1%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in trust in the HKSAR Government between January 2019 and December 2018. However, comparing the figures in the current survey with those of January 2018 shows that the percentage of trust in the HKSAR Government in January 2019 (27.4%) was lower than that of January 2018 (34.2%) 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 January 2019, 21.2% said they trusted it, 40.8% answered the opposite, and 33.8% said ‘in-between’. The respective figures from December were 22.8%, 40.9%, and 32.3%. Statistically significant differences were not found between January 2019 and December 2018. Again, the difference between the percentages in January 2019 (Trust: 21.2%; Distrust: 40.8%) and the percentages in January 2018 (Trust: 25.6%; Distrust: 37.9%) was not statistically significant.
