People’s perceptions of life in Hong Kong

 dez21

Hong Kong, named the most liveable city in the world in 2012 by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), topped the ranking of 140 global cities mainly thanks to a special weighting in the index for the city’s green space, lack of sprawl, natural assets and connectivity. However, liveability should also take into account local people’s perceptions. Thus, “perceived liveability” can give more of an indication about the reasons for residents to stay in a city. Different from the EIU’s index, the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies has been tracking perceived liveability in Hong Kong since 2017. The annual perceived liveability index asks respondents to evaluate the liveability of Hong Kong on a range of 0 to 100, with 50 being a pass. In the first two years of the survey, the average of the scores were above 60 and did not change much.

However, it slid to 54.4 in September 2019 amid the height of the anti-extradition bill movement. The index moved further down, to 49.6, in September 2020, after the enactment of the national security law, reaching its lowest point on record. 

However, amid fears over the future of Hong Kong, the index recovered some of its losses this year, climbing to 52.1. This represents not only the first increase in the past five years but also the first score indicating an overall positive perception of life in the city since 2018. Hua Guo is a research associate at the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where Victor Zheng is associate director (executive) https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3160401/peoples-perceptions-life-hong-kong-are-changing-better-could-be