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A telephone survey was conducted from 16 to 21 March 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 703 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 36.3%.  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, 28.9% of the 703 respondents expressed satisfaction towards the HKSAR Government, 34.1% said they were dissatisfied, and 35.4% answered ‘in-between’.  The corresponding figures for February 2019 were 27.6%, 35.5%, and 36.4%, respectively.  The statistical analysis shows that the results for March 2019 were not significantly different from those of February 2019.  When comparing the figures with that from the same month last year (i.e. March 2018), it was found that the percentage of satisfaction in March 2019 (28.9%) was slightly lower than that of March 2018 (31.5%).  The difference in percentage distribution between March 2019 and March 2018 was statistically insignificant.

Rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam.  The survey in March 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 53.0 on average, higher than the rating for February (51.7).  But the statistical significance test (t-test) shows that the mean difference between the rating in March 2019 and the rating in February 2019 was not statistically significant.  However, when comparing her current rating (53.0) with that of March 2018 (56.2), 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 March 2019 were 49.4, 40.3 and 38.1 respectively.  The corresponding figures in February 2019 were 48.4, 41.3 and 36.1.  The comparison of the ratings of the three Secretaries between March 2019 and February 2019 shows that no statistically significant differences were found.  When their ratings in March 2019 were compared with the respective figures in March 2018, except the Secretary for Justice, statistically significant differences were found for the Chief Secretary for Administration and the Financial Secretary.

Trust in the HKSAR Government.  As of March 2019, 29.6% of the respondents showed trust in the HKSAR Government and 27.0% expressed distrust; 40.5% answered ‘in-between’.  The results in February 2019 were 28.6%, 267%, and 43.2%, respectively.  There was no statistically significant difference in trust in the HKSAR Government between March 2019 and February 2019.  Comparing the figure in the current survey with those of March 2018, it shows that the percentage of trust in the HKSAR Government in March 2019 (29.6%) was lower than that of March 2018 (33.3%), but 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 March 2019, 23.6% said they trusted it, 37.6% answered the opposite, and 31.9% said ‘in-between’.  The respective figures from February were 22.5%, 38.8%, and 34.7%.  Statistically significant differences were not found between March 2019 and February 2019.  However, the difference between the percentages in March 2019 (Trust: 23.6%; Distrust: 37.6%) and the percentages in March 2018 (Trust: 22.1%; Distrust: 42.6%) was statistically significant.