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The Thematic Household Survey Report No. 59 is published by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) today (February 4).
This publication contains key findings of the Thematic Household Survey conducted during May to August 2015. The survey collected information from Hong Kong residents on pattern of smoking, personal computer (PC) and Internet penetration, and use of language. The target respondents for the three topics were persons aged 15 and over, persons aged 10 and over, and persons aged 6 to 65 respectively.
Pattern of smoking
The survey results showed that at the time of enumeration, there were some 641 300 daily cigarette smokers, accounting for 10.5% of all persons aged 15 and over in Hong Kong. The corresponding proportion was 10.7% in 2012 when a similar survey was conducted. Daily cigarette smokers consumed on average about 13 sticks of cigarettes a day, more or less the same as in 2012.
If including persons who consumed other forms of tobacco or related products (e.g. cigar, hand rolled cigarette, water pipe, pipe-smoking and e-cigarette), there were some 646 400 daily smokers at the time of enumeration, accounting for 10.6% of all persons aged 15 and over in Hong Kong. The corresponding proportion was 10.8% in 2012. It should however be noted that information on e-cigarette smoking was not collected in the 2012 survey.
PC and Internet penetration
Findings of the survey revealed that continually more people had knowledge of using PC. The percentage of persons aged 10 and over who had knowledge of using PC was 81.2% in 2015, up from 77.4% in 2014 when a similar survey was conducted. The increase was particularly remarkable among persons aged 45 to 64 (from 73.9% to 81.0%) and persons aged 65 and over (from 23.5% to 30.1%).
The percentage of persons aged 10 and over who had used Internet service during the 12 months before enumeration also increased, from 79.9% in 2014 to 84.9% in 2015. The increase was particularly remarkable among persons aged 65 and over (from 24.0% to 35.9%) and persons aged 45 to 64 (from 79.7% to 88.6%).
Findings of the survey also showed that usage of smartphone continued to increase. Some 5 270 800 persons aged 10 and over had smartphone in 2015, around 0.4 million more than that in 2014. The smartphone penetration rate was 83.0% in 2015, up from 77.2% in 2014. The increase was particularly remarkable among persons aged 65 and over (from 24.3% to 35.4%) and persons aged 45 to 64 (from 78.6% to 87.5%).
Use of language
The survey results revealed that among persons aged 6 to 65, 86.5% perceived their language competence on using Cantonese as very good or good. 23.1% perceived their language competence on using spoken English as very good or good, while 24.7% perceived their language competence on using Putonghua as very good or good.
The corresponding proportions remained broadly unchanged when compared to 2012 (at 85.9%, 23.7% and 24.1% respectively) when a similar survey was conducted.
On written language, the survey results showed that there was increase in the percentage of persons aged 6 to 65 who perceived their language competence on written Chinese as very good or good, from 66.5% in 2012 to 73.1% in 2015. As for written English, the percentage of persons aged 6 to 65 who perceived their language competence as very good or good remained broadly unchanged in 2015 (at 23.3%) when compared to 2012 (at 24.2%).
Other information
Detailed findings of the survey, together with the population coverage, concepts/definitions of key terms and data limitations, 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 made to the Social Surveys Section (1) of the C&SD (Tel: 2887 5103 or email: thematic@censtatd.gov.hk).
Ends/Thursday, February 4, 2016
Issued at HKT 16:30
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