The Youth Research Centre of the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG) released on Feb. 22, 2024, the latest results of its “Youth Value Indicator 2022” survey. The proportion of people who believe that their outlook on life is negative has increased from less than 20 percent in 2017 to nearly 25 percent in 2022.
The percentage of young people who believe they will have children has also dropped to less than 60 percent, a new low since 1997. Only 40 percent of young people surveyed believe that voting in elections is useful, a drop of nearly 50 percentage points from 2017.
This survey has been conducted since 1997, and there have been 20 such surveys to date. The Centre hopes to understand the trends in the values of Hong Kong youth from multiple perspectives through regular surveys. From Dec. 1 to 18, 2022, the research team used random telephone sampling to interview 525 young people aged between 15 and 39 successfully.
The results showed that 81.2 percent of the young people surveyed believed that they were useful individuals. Although it is higher than the 73.1 percent recorded in 2021, it is still far from the high of 92.3 percent in 2017.
The rate of feeling “hopeful for the future” rose to 70.1 percent, while the proportion of people who believed that their outlook on life is negative has increased from 17.3 percent in 2017 to 25.6 percent in 2022. This latter has been seen to fluctuate around the 25 percent mark in recent years.
The HKFYG believes that this is an indication that although young people’s self-affirmation and hope for the future have improved, there are still a small number of people who hold a negative outlook on life and have doubts about their self-worth.
The young people surveyed also believed that the impact of voting in elections and expressing opinions has declined. The proportion of people who say that voting in elections is useful has dropped sharply from 87.9 percent in 2017 to 40.2 percent in 2022. Whether public opinion has any influence on government policy dropped sharply from 68.9 percent in 2017 to 39.9 percent in 2022.
Among the respondents, the proportion of them who believe they will have children has hit a new low since the survey was launched in 1997, falling from 87.6 percent in 2017 to 57.1 percent this time round. However, the attitude toward marriage has not changed significantly.
In 2022, 81.7 percent of the young people surveyed said they would get married, which was only a small decrease of 0.1 percentage points from that of 2021. The previous high was 91.4 percent in 2017.
The willingness to emigrate has fallen for two consecutive years, from 61.8 percent in 2020 to 52.1percent in 2022, while the rate of optimism about Hong Kong’s development in the next year has increased sharply from 22.7 percent in 2021 to 38.4 percent in 2022. On the contrary, the proportion of people who are optimistic about China in the next year fell from 46.8 percent to 42.9 percent.
The survey also found that 78.6 percent of the young people surveyed agreed that one person could have multiple occupations at the same time. Since this question was first added in 2019, the agreement rate has remained above 70 percent, and the HKFYG said that it indicates young people tend to agree to embrace a flexible work employment model.
However, the confidence of the young people surveyed in their language abilities in both English and Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), and creativity has declined in recent years, and the rate of satisfaction with their English proficiency has dropped from 77.9 percent in 2017 to 48.5 percent in 2022. As for whether they agreed that lifelong learning is necessary, 81.0 percent of them agreed, down more than 10 percentage points from 94.3 percent in 2017.
In addition, the survey also found a downward trend in the participation of young people in volunteering work, charitable donations, and servicing as civics and committee members, from 68.2, 96.2, and 28.3 percent in 2017 to 27.6, 60.6, and 10.7 percent respectively in 2022.
The HKFYG made the points that with young people’s lack of confidence in language abilities in both English and Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), the reduced enthusiasm in social participation, and some of them still have a negative outlook on life, the situation is worrying and is not conducive to sustainable social and economic development in the long run.
It calls on all sectors of society to work together to seize opportunities and strengthen youth’s ability at positive self-construction, including enhancing competitiveness and wellness development, and actively participating in society.
