Surveys and You

  1. Who are we?
    • The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) together with statistical units in various government departments and policy bureaux constitute the Government Statistical Service, which represents a network for the provision of government statistical services.
    • The main law governing the work of C&SD is the Census and Statistics Ordinance (Chapter 316), which regulates the method with which the Commissioner for Census and Statistics conducts mandatory and voluntary statistical surveys.
    • Statistics are important to the government in planning and formulating policies, to the private sector (e.g. business firms, investors and analysts) in formulating business strategies and to international organizations in carrying out their work.
    • The C&SD's report "An Outline of Statistical Development" provides information on its activities and developments.
  2. Why do we conduct surveys?
    • We conduct surveys so as to collect data for compiling timely and accurate social and economic statistics.
  3. What can you expect of us?
    • We will be professional and courteous. We will try our best to explain clearly what information we need and how the statistics thus complied will be used; assist you in supplying the requested information; listen to your views; and respond quickly and fairly to any complaint that you make.
  4. Your civic responsibility and legal obligation
    • As a resident or a business entity in Hong Kong, you have the civic responsibility of providing timely and accurate data for compilation of statistics. By discharging this responsibility, you help government, the community and eventually yourselves.
    • The majority of our surveys are conducted with an Order under the Census and Statistics Ordinance. Respondents selected for those surveys are thus required by law to provide the necessary information.
  5. Confidentiality of the information you supply is safeguarded
    • The information you provide will be kept in strict confidence in accordance with the Census and Statistics Ordinance, and will be used solely for compiling statistics in aggregated form.
  6. We care about respondent burden
    • We use alternative sources of information instead of conducting surveys whenever feasible.
    • Before running a survey, we test our questions with prospective respondents.
    • Scientific sampling schemes are carefully designed for our surveys, so as to minimize the number of respondents required for achieving the specified precision of statistics, while ensuring that the sampled respondents are generally representative of the target population. The questionnaires are carefully designed and only the necessary information is asked so as to minimize respondent burden.
  7. Your prompt co-operation and response are essential
    • The more up-to-date the statistics, the more useful they are. Your prompt co-operation and response in providing the data are thus essential in expediting our compilation and release of statistics.
  8. Contacting us
    • Some of our surveys use self-administered questionnaires to collect the required information. To facilitate you in completing the questionnaires, you are welcome to phone us for enquiry or assistance. Our field officers can come and assist you if necessary.
    • A variety of social and economic statistics are available in C&SD. You are welcome to get the statistics you want through the Internet or contact us through other means for assistance.

Enquiries on Statistical Data