CUHK
News Centre

A telephone survey was conducted from 19 February to 26 February, 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 February 2021, 15.7% of the 704 respondents expressed satisfaction towards the HKSAR Government, 59.8% said they were dissatisfied, and 23.8% answered ‘in-between’.  The corresponding figures for January 2021 were 14.4%, 61.7%, and 23.6%, respectively.  The statistical analysis shows that the results for February 2021 were not statistically significant different from those of January 2021.  When comparing the figures with those from January 2020 (The fieldwork of monthly survey in February 2020 was not carried out due to the novel coronavirus outbreak in Hong Kong), the difference in percentage distribution between February 2021 and January 2020 was found statistically significant.

Rating of Chief Executive Carrie Lam.  The survey in February 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 26.9 on average, upper than the rating for January 2021 (25.8).  The statistical significance test (t-test) shows that the mean difference between the rating in February 2021 and the rating in January 2021 was not statistically significant.  When comparing her current rating (26.9) with that of January 2020 (23.4), 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 February 2021 were 26.7, 29.9 and 20.4 respectively.  The corresponding figures in January 2021 were 26.2, 31.2 and 19.7.  The comparison of the ratings of the three Secretaries between February 2021 and January 2021 did not find any statistically significant differences.  When their ratings in February 2021 were compared with the respective figures in January 2020, it was found that only the rating of the Secretary for Justice whose ratings in February 2021 were significantly higher than those in January 2020.

Trust in the HKSAR Government.  As of February 2021, 19.1% of the respondents showed trust in the HKSAR Government and 53.4% expressed distrust; 24.6% answered ‘in-between’.  The results in January 2021 were 18.2%, 54.1%, and 24.9%, respectively.  No statistically significant difference was found in trust in the HKSAR Government between February 2021 and January 2021.  Also, when comparing the figure in the current survey with those of January 2020, the difference between the percentages in February 2021 (Trust: 19.1%; Distrust: 53.4%) 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 February 2021, 16.3% said they trusted it, 55.5% answered the opposite, and 22.1% said ‘in-between’.  The respective figures from January 2021 were 17.2%, 57.7%, and 20.9%.  No statistically significant difference was found between February 2021 and January 2021.  And the difference between the percentages in February 2021 (Trust: 16.3%; Distrust: 55.5%) and the percentages in January 2020 (Trust: 14.6%; Distrust: 57.9%) was not found statistically significant. 

In conclusion, the current survey results in February 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 January 2021 (significance test shows the differences are not statistically significant).  When compared with the survey conducted in January 2020, the level of satisfaction with the government performance, the performance ratings of Chief Executive and the Secretary for Justice 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 704 respondents aged 18 or above (landline: 364; mobile: 340) were successfully interviewed, with response rates of 32.1% (landline) and 31.2% (mobile).  The sampling error for the sample size of 704 is estimated at plus or minus 3.69 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.