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A telephone survey was conducted from 15 January to 22 January, 2021 by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong to study the popularity of the HKSAR Government. The major findings are summarised as follows:

Satisfaction with the HKSAR Government.  According to the current survey in January 2021, 14.4% of the 720 respondents expressed satisfaction towards the HKSAR Government, 61.7% said they were dissatisfied, and 23.6% answered ‘in-between’.  The corresponding figures for December 2020 were 15.8%, 62.5%, and 21.2%, respectively.  The statistical analysis shows that the results for January 2021 were not statistically significant different from those of December 2020.  When comparing the figures with those from the same month last year (i.e. January 2020), it was also found that the difference in percentage distribution between January 2021 and January 2020 was not statistically significant.

Rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam.  The survey in January 2021 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 25.8 on average, slightly upper than the rating for December 2020 (25.6).  The statistical significance test (t-test) shows that the mean difference between the rating in January 2021 and the rating in December 2020 was not statistically significant.  When comparing her current rating (25.8) with that of January 2020 (23.4), the mean difference of the two months was not 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 2021 were 26.2, 31.2 and 19.7 respectively.  The corresponding figures in December 2020 were 26.9, 30.2 and 19.9.  The comparison of the ratings of the three Secretaries between January 2021 and December 2020 did not find any statistically significant differences.  When their ratings in January 2021 were compared with the respective figures in January 2020, except for the Chief Secretary for Administration, statistically significant differences were found for the Financial Secretary and the Secretary for Justice, showing that both of their ratings in January 2021 were significantly higher than those in January 2020.

Trust in the HKSAR Government.  As of January 2021, 18.2% of the respondents showed trust in the HKSAR Government and 54.1% expressed distrust; 24.9% answered ‘in-between’.  The results in December 2020 were 18.9%, 54.6%, and 25.2%, respectively.  No statistically significant difference was found in trust in the HKSAR Government between January 2021 and December 2020.  Also, when comparing the figure in the current survey with those of January 2020, the difference between the percentages in January 2021 (Trust: 18.2%; Distrust: 54.1%) and the percentages in January 2020 (Trust: 15.5%; Distrust: 57.7%) was observed to be not statistically significant.

Trust in the Central Government.  Regarding the level of trust in the Central Government in January 2021, 17.2% said they trusted it, 57.7% answered the opposite, and 20.9% said ‘in-between’.  The respective figures from December 2020 were 15.4%, 57.0%, and 23.9%.  No statistically significant difference was found between January 2021 and December 2020.  And the difference between the percentages in January 2021 (Trust: 17.2%; Distrust: 57.7%) and the percentages in January 2020 (Trust: 14.6%; Distrust: 57.9%) was not found statistically significant.

In conclusion, the current survey results in January 2021 indicate that the public satisfaction level of the government performance, the performance rating of the Chief Executive and the three Secretaries, and even the trust in the HKSAR Government and the Central Government were not significantly different from those in December 2020 (significance test shows the differences are not statistically significant).  When compared with the same month of the previous year, the level of satisfaction with the government performance, the performance ratings of Chief Executive and Chief Secretary for Administration, trust in the HKSAR Government and the Central Government were not significantly different between January 2021 and January 2020.  On the other hand, the performance ratings of Financial Secretary and the Secretary for Justice in January 2021 were significantly higher than those in January 2020 (significance test shows the differences are statistically significant).

The survey employed a dual-frame sampling design that included both landline and mobile phone numbers.  A total of 720 respondents aged 18 or above (landline: 370; mobile: 350) were successfully interviewed, with response rates of 33.2% (landline) and 32.0% (mobile).  The sampling error for the sample size of 720 is estimated at plus or minus 3.65 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.  Furthermore, the data of this survey was weighted based on the probability of the respondents being selected via dual-frame sampling design and relevant age-sex distribution of the population published by the Census and Statistics Department before analysis.