General Household Survey

 

        2582 4798 or 2887 5526

 

       As shown on the notification letter, reminder letter, appeal letter or non-contact slip sent by this department.
       (Please quote the reference number printed on the notification letter, reminder letter, appeal letter or non-contact slip.)

 

        2887 5526

 

The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) has been conducting the General Household Survey (GHS) since August 1981 to collect information on the labour force, employment, unemployment and underemployment, as well as the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the population. The information collected is useful to the Government for review and formulation of social and economic policies, and is widely used in research conducted by the academia and private sector.

Some examples of the use of the GHS data are:

1. To provide statistics on labour force participation rate, number of employed persons, unemployment rate and underemployment rate on a monthly basis to reflect the latest labour market situation;
2. To provide information on the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the working population, including age-sex composition, education level and employment earnings; and
3. To provide statistics on households, including household size, type of housing, rent and monthly household income to support studies on the poverty situation and formulation of poverty alleviation policies.

 

The GHS covers the land-based non-institutional population of Hong Kong and thus does not cover:

1. inmates of institutions; and
2. persons living on board vessels.

The survey covers about 99% of the Hong Kong Resident Population (i.e. including both Usual Residents and Mobile Residents).

The GHS makes use of a full list of addresses of quarters in Hong Kong maintained by C&SD as the sampling frame. In each month, about 9 500 quarters are randomly selected from the list to form the sample of the survey. Information about all households and their members living in the selected quarters is collected.

A rotational replicate sample design is adopted in selecting the monthly samples such that households in about half of the sampled quarters in a month will be enumerated again 3 months later. The overlapping of the monthly samples enables more precise estimation of changes in the labour force and socio-economic characteristics of the population over time on the one hand, and better management of respondents' reporting burden on the other.

At the start of each survey cycle (normally on the 23rd day of the month preceding the survey month), notification letters are sent to the sampled quarters with clear postal addresses by C&SD to explain the purpose of the GHS and to seek the co-operation of the households living therein. In case these households do not respond within a specific period of time, reminder letters will be sent to them. Letters are also sent to the district offices concerned to solicit their assistance in informing households in those sampled quarters without clear postal addresses.

As a rotational replicate sample design is adopted in the GHS, about half of the sampled quarters in the current survey month are repeated cases which had been enumerated by the GHS 3 months ago, while another half are newly selected cases. For newly selected cases, our census officers will visit the households concerned to collect the required information by face-to-face interviewing. An appeal letter or non-contact slip will be left behind when the census officer cannot make contact with the household visited.

For repeated cases, our census officers will collect the required information by Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) as far as possible.

In addition to face-to-face interviewing and CATI, Online Questionnaire is available for sampled households to supply their information over the Internet. Sampled households can follow the simple instructions given in the notification letters to activate and complete the online questionnaire on their own.

The GHS questionnaire is designed to collect information on the labour force, employment, unemployment and underemployment, as well as the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the population. The concepts and definitions used in measuring labour force, employment, unemployment and underemployment follow closely the recommendations of the International Labour Organization.

Major regular data items included in the questionnaire are:

• Household information

  1. Type of quarters
  2. Number of households in the quarters
  3. Type of household
  4. Type of accommodation
  5. Tenure of accommodation
  6. Monthly household rent (including rates and Government rent)
  7. Number of members in the household
  8. Household income in the last month

• Personal information

  9. Relationship to head of household
  10. Age
  11. Sex
  12. Marital status
  13. Educational attainment
  14. Economic activity status during the 7 days before enumeration
  15. Non-employment income in the last month

• Employment-related information

  • Employed persons:

    16. Industry
    17. Occupation
    18. Number of hours worked during the 7 days before enumeration
    19. Employment earnings in the last month
    20. Usual place of work

  • Unemployed persons:

    21. Whether available for work during the 7 days before enumeration
    22. Reason for not available for work
    23. Whether seeking work during the 30 days before enumeration
    24. Reason for not seeking work
    25. Action taken to seek work
    26. Duration of unemployment
    27. Reason for leaving previous job
    28. Previous industry
    29. Previous occupation

  • Underemployed persons:

    30. Reason for working less than 35 hours during the 7 days before enumeration
    31. Whether available for additional work during the 7 days before enumeration
    32. Whether seeking additional work during the 30 days before enumeration
    33. Action taken to seek additional work

Other data items may also be asked on a need basis. For further information, please contact the General Household Survey Section (1) (tel: 2887 5526; fax: 2508 1501; email: household-survey@censtatd.gov.hk).

 

The name and telephone number of the census officer responsible for enumerating individual households are shown on the top right hand corner of the notification letter sent to the individual households.

Each of our census officers carries a Government Identity Card / Enumerator Identity Card and a Certificate of Identity for conducting the GHS while on duty, which are available for inspection.

Households who wish to check the identity of the census officer visiting / calling them can contact C&SD by the following means:

Address	21/F, Wanchai Tower, 12 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Telephone no.	2582 4798 or 2887 5526 ( 8:45 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. on Monday - Friday (except public holidays)) (both numbers are supported with automatic recording function after the service hours.)
Facsimile no.	3101 0334

 

Households are welcome to make appointment for face-to-face / telephone interview by our census officers. They can contact C&SD at 8:45 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. on Monday - Friday (except public holidays) by calling the telephone number shown on the notification letter, reminder letter, appeal letter or non-contact slip. The telephone lines concerned are supported with automatic recording function outside the service hours and we will respond to the recorded messages as soon as practicable. Households can also make appointment through email: household-survey@censtatd.gov.hk. It will facilitate our follow-up by providing us with name of the contact person, contact telephone number and survey reference number (printed on the notification letter, reminder letter, appeal letter or non-contact slip).

 

The GHS is conducted under Part IIIA of the Census and Statistics Ordinance (Cap. 316). Data collected regarding individual persons and households will be kept in strict confidence and will not be released to any unauthorised parties, including government bureaux and departments. Such data will only be used for compiling statistics which will not enable information relating to individual persons or households to be revealed. In addition, all questionnaires will be destroyed within 12 months after the end of the survey period.

 

Please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions.

 

Summary statistics on unemployment and underemployment covering a moving 3-month period are published every month by C&SD via a press release. In order to provide such statistics as timely as possible, provisional key labour force statistics (including the total labour force, total numbers of employed, unemployed and underemployed persons, overall seasonally adjusted unemployment rate and overall underemployment rate) for a 3-month period are published first at a time lag of about half a month, while more detailed statistics are published about 1.5 months after the end of the 3-month period concerned.

 

Press releases are issued to inform the public of release of:

1. Provisional unemployment and underemployment statistics;
2. Quarterly Report on General Household Survey; and
3. Population and Household Statistics Analysed by District Council District.

The schedule of upcoming press releases on provisional unemployment and underemployment statistics is available for reference by the public.

 

Apart from the monthly press releases on provisional unemployment and underemployment statistics and key labour force statistics available on this website, C&SD also publishes a series of reports entitled Quarterly Report on General Household Survey which provide detailed information on the size and composition of the labour force, demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the employed, unemployed and underemployed populations as well as the hours of work and employment earnings of the employed persons for each of the four calendar quarters in a year. The reports for the first three calendar quarters are published in the end of May, August and November of the same year respectively while the report for the fourth calendar quarter is published in end February of the next year.

Besides, an annual report entitled Population and Household Statistics Analysed by District Council District is published in March of each year. This series of reports contain annual statistics on a broad range of demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the population in different District Council districts.

Users can download the above publications free of charge at this website.

More detailed tabulations than those contained in the above publications are also available for public reference. Please contact the General Household Survey Section (3) of this Department (Tel: 2887 5508; fax: 2508 1501; email: ghs@censtatd.gov.hk) for more information.

 

Feature articles which analyse selected issues of interest to the community using the survey results of the General Household Survey are available for downloading free of charge at this website.  They include:

1. The Profile of the Unemployed Population in Hong Kong;
2. The Profile of Hong Kong Population Analysed by District Council District; and
3. Analysis of the Dependency Trends in Hong Kong.

Key labour force statistics covering moving 3-month periods are compiled regularly. You can view the latest statistics on this website. In addition, statistical tables containing time series of key labour force and household statistics are available for downloading free of charge at this website.

 

Unemployment is subject to the effects of seasonal variations such as seasonal fluctuations in the number of first-time job-seekers, holiday effects at festive times and seasonal ups and downs in business activities. By applying seasonal adjustment to the series of unemployment rate, such seasonal variations are removed to enable figures for different periods to be analysed and compared in a more meaningful manner. It also facilitates discernment of the underlying trend of the unemployment rate. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rates are compiled by the X-12 ARIMA method.

 

Checking identity of census officers

Address	21/F, Wanchai Tower, 12 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Telephone no.	2582 4798 or 2887 5526
Facsimile no.	3101 0334

Making appointment for interview

Telephone no.	As shown on the notification letter, reminder letter, appeal letter or non-contact slip
E-mail address	household-survey@censtatd.gov.hk  (please quote the reference number printed on the notification letter, reminder letter, appeal letter or non-contact slip)

Survey operation (General Household Survey)

Address	5/F, Fortress Tower, 250 King's Road, North Point, Hong Kong
Telephone no.	2887 5526
Facsimile no.	2508 1501
E-mail address	household-survey@censtatd.gov.hk

Statistical data

Address	5/F, Fortress Tower, 250 King's Road, North Point, Hong Kong
Telephone no.	2887 5508
Facsimile no.	2508 1501
E-mail address	ghs@censtatd.gov.hk

 

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