The Thematic Household Survey Report No. 66 is published by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) today (June 21).

     This publication contains key findings of the Thematic Household Survey conducted during March to June 2018. The survey collected information on Hong Kong residents having studied outside Hong Kong, training needs, desire to take up jobs, keeping of dogs and cats, and use of language.

Hong Kong residents having studied outside Hong Kong

     The survey results showed that 54 800 persons (1.3%) aged below 50 had studied outside Hong Kong during the five years before enumeration. The rate of persons who had studied outside Hong Kong during the five years before enumeration was the highest for those aged 18 - 24, at 3.8%.

Training needs of economically active persons

     752 800 (20.4%) economically active persons had attended job-related training/retraining courses during the 12 months before enumeration. 240 400 (6.5%) economically active persons had plans at the time of enumeration to attend job-related training / retraining courses in the future. Most commonly cited courses planned to be attended in future were those related to job-specific skills, followed by management skills and language skills.

Desire of economically inactive persons to take up jobs

     99 100 (5.7%) economically inactive persons aged 15 - 69 at the time of enumeration, within which 66 600 were female homemakers aged 30 - 59 and early retirees aged 50 - 64, would be willing to take up jobs if being offered suitable employment. Their main considerations were "flexible/convenient working hours", "high/reasonable salary" and "work place near home", etc.

Keeping of dogs and cats

     There were some 241 900 households keeping dogs or cats at the time of enumeration, representing 9.4% of all households in Hong Kong, down from 10.6% in 2010. The percentage of households keeping dogs dropped from 7.1% in 2010 to 5.7% in 2018, whereas the percentage of households keeping cats remained more or less the same in 2010 and 2018, at 4.1% and 4.0% respectively.

Use of language

     Among persons aged 6 - 65, 87.7% perceived their language competence in using Cantonese as very good or good, similar to the corresponding percentage in 2015 (86.5%). 29.0% perceived their language competence in using spoken English as very good or good, while 28.0% perceived their language competence in using Putonghua as very good or good. These percentages were higher than the corresponding percentages in 2015 (23.1% and 24.7% respectively).

     On written language, the survey results showed that there was an increase in the percentage of persons aged 6 - 65 who perceived their language competence in written Chinese as very good or good, from 73.1% in 2015 to 78.2% in 2018. As for written English, the percentage of persons aged 6 - 65 who perceived their language competence as very good or good also rose from 23.3% in 2015 to 28.6% in 2018.

Other information

     The survey successfully enumerated target respondents in some 10 000 households in accordance with a scientific sampling scheme to represent the population of Hong Kong.

     Detailed findings of the survey, together with the population coverage and concepts/definitions of key terms, are presented in the publication. Users can download the publication free of charge at the website of the C&SD (www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp140.jsp?productCode=B1130201).

     Enquiries about the contents of the publication can be directed to the Social Surveys Section (1) of the C&SD (Tel: 2887 5103 or email: thematic@censtatd.gov.hk).

Ends/Friday, June 21, 2019
Issued at HKT 16:30

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