1 in 3 Hongkongers want to move abroad despite city’s improved liveability: poll

A survey by a university in Hong Kong has found that about a third of residents hope to move abroad even as respondents rated the city’s liveability higher.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong poll found just over 34 per cent of residents said they would emigrate overseas if given the opportunity, compared with 37.7 per cent who expressed the same view the year before. The university called the difference “not statistically significant”.

Of the respondents who said they would like to move, 26.6 per cent said they had prepared to do so.

Hong Kong’s liveability score showed a marked improvement over the year prior. On a scale of zero to 100, with the higher end being better, residents scored Hong Kong at 60.8, compared with 56.5 last year.

The university’s poll in 2021 found 42 per cent of respondents hoped to move abroad, while the figure was 44 per cent in 2020. Those two years were a period that saw more residents leaving the city amid Beijing’s imposition of the national security law and the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the latest poll, the top reasons cited by respondents for wanting to move abroad included “dismal economic situation or overcast economic future” (23.8 per cent), “undemocratic political system (14.9 per cent), “excessive political disputes or unstable politics (14.1 per cent) and “poor living environment or congested living space” (12.5 per cent).