Hongkongers' satisfaction with the city's development is at a 16-year high, but more see storm clouds ahead than a year ago.
Sixty-four per cent of those polled by the University of Hong Kong's public opinion programme in mid-December said they were satisfied with Hong Kong's development in 2007. The figure is 7 percentage points higher than in a similar end-of-year survey 12 months ago about developments in 2006, and the highest recorded since the programme began conducting the survey in 1992.
Fifty-seven per cent of respondents said they had been happy in the past year. One in 10 of those polled was dissatisfied with developments last year.
The 1,019 respondents were also asked how they perceive the new year.
Fifty-seven per cent expect developments this year to be better than 2007, but 12 per cent think things will get worse. At the end of 2006, only 7 per cent predicted the year to come would be worse.
Thirty-six per cent think the economy will be the government's biggest challenge - down from 50 per cent three years ago, when the economic recovery had barely begun. Thirteen per cent thought welfare was the top issue needing government attention, and 11 per cent said constitutional development was the top issue.
