LCQ22: Statistics on domestic household income and employment earnings of employed persons
******************************************************************************************
Question:
Will the Government, on the basis of the Quarterly Reports on General Household Survey published by the Census and Statistics Department, provide this Council with the following annual statistics for 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2016:
(1) the range, median and mean of the monthly domestic household income of each of the decile groups into which all domestic households are divided after being ranked in terms of their monthly incomes (in ascending order);
(2) the range, median and mean of the per-capita monthly household income of each of the decile groups into which all Hong Kong people are divided after being ranked in terms of their per-capita monthly household incomes (in ascending order);
(3) the range, median and mean of the employment earnings of employed persons of each of the decile groups into which all employed persons are divided after being ranked in terms of their monthly employment earnings (in ascending order);
(4) in respect of the decile groups into which all employed persons are divided after being ranked in terms of their monthly employment earnings (in ascending order), a further breakdown of the employed persons of each group respectively by gender, age group, educational attainment, employment status (i.e. employee, employer and self-employed), industry section and occupational group; and
(5) the respective Gini coefficients compiled on the basis of (i) monthly domestic household income, (ii) per-capita monthly household income, and (iii) employment earnings of employed persons?
Reply:
President,
(1) to (4) Based on data obtained from the General Household Survey (GHS) conducted by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD), the relevant statistical figures of 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2016 are given at Annexes 1 to 4 respectively.
(5) Since the sample size of GHS is not sufficient for compiling precise Gini Coefficients, it is an established practice that C&SD compiles Gini Coefficients based on population censuses / by-censuses which have larger sample sizes. Based on such data, the Gini Coefficients by household income, per capita household income and income for main employment for 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016 are given in Table 1 of the Annex 5.
The above Gini Coefficients reflect households' income disparity in terms of cash income. Analyses of household income in cash alone may not be able to reflect fully the actual economic well-being of households. Government policies through taxation and in-kind social benefits (including education, housing and medical) also have an overall redistributive impact on household income. Accordingly, C&SD also compiles Gini Coefficients based on household income after tax and transfer of in-kind social benefits, relevant figures of which are presented in Table 2 of the Annex 5.
For the concepts and estimation methods of the above Gini Coefficients, please refer to "2016 Population By-census Thematic Report: Household Income Distribution in Hong Kong" (www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp459.jsp).
Ends/Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Issued at HKT 17:35
Issued at HKT 17:35
NNNN