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Following is a question by the Hon Wu Chi-wai and a written reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Professor K C Chan, in the Legislative Council today (May 27):
Question:
Regarding the statistical information on private residential properties and domestic household incomes provided by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD), will the Government inform this Council:
(1) as there are views that the yearly surveys conducted by the Rating and Valuation Department on the vacancy situation of private domestic units fail to reflect the actual situation, whether C&SD will, when it conducts the population by-census next year, concomitantly carry out a survey on the vacancy situation of private domestic units; if C&SD will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(2) as the information on the Long Term Housing Strategy published by the Transport and Housing Bureau in December last year showed that the total number of subdivided units (SDUs) was estimated at 86 400, whether C&SD will, when it conducts the population by-census next year, conduct a survey for the purpose of providing a more accurate number of SDUs;
(3) whether C&SD lists the domestic household income data in 10 decile groups when it conducts the General Household Survey; if C&SD does, whether it will publish the relevant data; if not, whether it will consider adopting such a statistical tool; and
(4) as the domestic household income data, such as the median household income, currently published by C&SD are expressed in nominal prices, whether C&SD will consider publishing the relevant data in constant prices as well?
Reply:
President,
Our reply to Hon Wu Chi-wai's question on the provision of statistical information on private domestic premises and household income by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) is as follows:
(1) and (2) The C&SD will collect information on subdivided units through the 2016 Population By-census but has no plan to compile statistics on vacancy situation of private domestic flats. The reason is that during the population by-census, enumerators may not be able to contact the household in certain premises. However, they are not able to ascertain whether the premises in such cases are vacant.
(3) and (4) According to prevailing practice, C&SD publishes the most commonly used statistical tables in the Report on General Household Survey. As for other statistics which are not published in the report (e.g. monthly domestic household income analysed by decile and domestic household income at constant price), individual users may request C&SD to compile relevant statistical tables according to their needs (e.g. the base period for the constant price statistics) through C&SD's Data Enquiry Service on a chargeable basis.
Ends/Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Issued at HKT 12:35
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