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The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)’s Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies conducted a telephone survey from 9 October to 25 October 2024 to study the popularity of the Hong Kong government. The major findings include:

Satisfaction with the Hong Kong government. In the survey of October 2024, 24% of respondents expressed satisfaction with the Hong Kong government, 27.7% said they were dissatisfied and 46.4% answered “in-between”. The corresponding figures for the previous survey (August 2024) were 26.6%, 29.5% and 41.2% respectively. The statistical analysis (chi-square test) shows there were no statistically significant differences between the results for October 2024 and those for August 2024. The differences in percentage distribution between the latest findings (satisfied: 24.0%; dissatisfied: 27.7%) and those from September 2023 (satisfied: 25.2%; dissatisfied: 33.6%) were statistically significant.

Rating of Chief Executive John Lee. In the October 2024 survey, Chief Executive John Lee’s performance rating (on a point scale from 0 to 100, with 50 as the pass mark) stood at 50.7 on average, lower than that in August 2024 (51.8), but the mean difference was statistically insignificant. There was also no statistically significant difference between October 2024 (50.7) and September 2023 (47.9).

Ratings of three secretaries. The average performance ratings of the Chief Secretary for Administration (Chan Kwok-ki), Financial Secretary (Paul Chan) and Secretary for Justice (Paul Lam) in October 2024 were 47.7, 50.2 and 46.4 respectively. When comparing the October 2024 figures with those from August 2024 (Chief Secretary for Administration: 47.8; Financial Secretary: 49.4; Secretary for Justice: 47.4), no statistically significant differences were found for any of the three secretaries. The ratings of the Chief Secretary for Administration and Secretary for Justice in October 2024 (47.7 and 46.4 respectively) were statistically significantly higher than the respective figures in September 2023 (Chief Secretary for Administration: 44.0; Secretary for Justice: 42.2), while the difference in the average ratings of the Financial Secretary between October 2024 (50.2) and September 2023 (48.9) was statistically insignificant.

Trust in the Hong Kong government. In October 2024, 28.9% of the respondents said they trusted the Hong Kong government and 26.9% expressed distrust; 41.5% answered “in-between”. The corresponding figures for August 2024 were 31.6%, 26.2% and 39.9% respectively. No statistically significant differences were found between October 2024 and August 2024. However, the percentage differences between October 2024 (trust: 28.9%; distrust: 26.9%) and September 2023 (trust: 28.2%; distrust: 34.0%) were statistically significant.

Trust in the Central Government. Regarding the level of trust in the Central Government in October 2024, 31.6% said they trusted it, 26.2% answered the opposite and 38.9% said “in-between”. The respective figures in August 2024 were 35.2%, 25.7% and 35.1%. There were no statistically significant differences between October 2024 and August 2024. However, the differences between the percentage distribution in October 2024 (trust: 31.6%; distrust: 26.2%) and September 2023 (trust: 29.8%; distrust: 33.5%) were statistically significant.

In conclusion, the survey results in October 2024 indicate that all the popularity indices (the public satisfaction level with the Hong Kong government’s performance, the public’s performance ratings of the Chief Executive and the three secretaries, the level of trust in the Hong Kong government and the level of trust in the Central Government) were not significantly different from those in August 2024 (the significance test shows the differences were not statistically significant). However, there were statistically significant differences between October 2024 and September 2023 in the public satisfaction level with the Hong Kong government’s performance, the public’s performance ratings of the Chief Secretary for Administration and Secretary for Justice, and the level of trust in the Hong Kong government and the Central Government (the significance test shows the differences were statistically significant).

The survey employed a dual-frame sampling design that included both landline and mobile phone numbers. A total of 711 respondents aged 18 or above (landline: 201; mobile: 510) were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 56.4% (landline: 45.9%; mobile: 60.6%). The sampling error for the sample size of 711 is estimated at plus or minus 3.68 percentage points at 95% confidence level. Furthermore, the data in 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.