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The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)’s Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies conducted a telephone survey from 6 May to 20 May 2025 to gauge public views about social mobility in Hong Kong. Among the respondents, 58.7% said that the opportunities for upward mobility were not enough for Hong Kong’s young people, while 46.4% thought those opportunities would get worse in the next 10 years or more.

In addition to the 58.7% who said Hong Kong currently did not provide enough such opportunities, 28.9% answered “in-between” and only 9.0% said that there were enough. Compared to a similar survey conducted in May 2024, the figure who believed opportunities were insufficient increased by 5.4 percentage points, while the figures of those who answered “in-between” and those who said that there were enough decreased by 3.2 and 1.7 percentage points respectively. The statistical analysis (chi-square test) showed that the results for 2025 were not statistically significantly different from those for 2024.

While 46.4% of the respondents predicted that opportunities for upward mobility for young people would get worse in the next 10 years or more, 27.7% predicted they would be similar to the current situation and 19.2% predicted they would be better. The numbers of those who predicted that they would get worse and be similar increased by 3.1 and 1.3 percentage points from the previous survey respectively, while the percentage of those who predicted it would be better was similar to that in 2024. A statistical test showed that the percentage distributions of the two surveys were not statistically significantly different.

66.3% of the respondents said that young people’s opportunities for upward mobility had worsened compared to 10 years ago, 1.3 percentage points higher than the previous survey; while 17.0% replied it was similar to 10 years ago, 2.1 percentage points higher; and 12.8% said it had improved, 1.7 percentage points lower. The difference between 2025 and 2024 was statistically insignificant.

All respondents were asked whether young people would have better opportunities to become successful if they pursued their careers in mainland China: 22.4% replied they would, a decrease of 5.3 percentage points from the previous survey; 40.9% answered “half-half”, a decrease of 4.9 percentage points; and 31.1% said they would not, an increase of 11.5 percentage points. The percentage distributions of the two surveys were statistically significantly different.

When asked whether young people would have better opportunities for success if they pursued their careers in foreign countries, 21.0% replied they would, similar to the corresponding figure last time (20.8%); 44.6% answered “half-half”, a decrease of 3.0 percentage points; and 26.9% said they would not, an increase of 2.5 percentage points. The percentage distributions of the two surveys were not statistically significantly different.

Regarding personal experiences of social mobility in the past five years, 58.3% of the respondents said that they had been stationary, an increase of 5.0 percentage points from the previous survey; 18.5% thought they had moved downward, a decrease of 2.3 percentage points; and 19.7% felt that they had moved upward, similar to the 2024 figure. The difference between 2025 and 2024 was found to be statistically significant.

Concerning predictions of personal social mobility opportunities in the next five years, 58.1% of the respondents said that they would not change, an increase of 9.6 percentage points from the previous survey; 18.3% predicted that they would move downward, a decrease of 6.3 percentage points; and 17.7% predicted that they would move upward, a decrease of 2.5 percentage points. The percentage distributions of the two surveys were statistically significantly different.

Lastly, when asked about the meaning of upward mobility, 37.1% of the respondents answered that it was having a “higher quality of life” (a decrease of 2.1 percentage points from the previous survey), followed by “more wealth and a better career” (27.3%), a “higher education level” (22.3%) and a “stronger influence on society” (7.0%). The results for 2025 were not statistically significantly different from those for 2024.

The survey employed a dual-frame sampling design that included both landline and mobile phone numbers. A total of 702 respondents aged 18 or above (landline: 136; mobile: 566) were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 57.9% (landline: 52.5%; mobile: 59.2%). The sampling error for the sample size of 702 is estimated at plus or minus 3.70 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. The weighting of survey data was based on the probability of the respondents being selected via dual-frame sampling design and relevant age-sex distribution of the population published by the Census and Statistics Department.