Tag

Poverty

May 26
1

How to break the cycle of child poverty in Hong Kong, where one in five children are poor

By | Experts' Opinion, Paul's Channel | No Comments

Children who grow up in low-income households tend to have less access to opportunities and therefore are more likely to remain poor in adulthood. The fact that poverty often crosses generational lines makes the problem much harder to tackle.

According to the Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report, there were some 180,000 children (aged below 18) living in poverty in 2015. The child poverty rate was 18 per cent, which meant that nearly every one in five children were living in poverty. Compared with other developed economies, the child poverty rate in Hong Kong is relatively high. It stands at 3.7 per cent in Denmark, 9.8 per cent in Britain, 15.1 per cent in Australia and 21.2 per cent in the US. Read More

Jul 19
0

A measure of happiness: Canada’s well-being index could be just what Hong Kong needs

By | Experts' Opinion, Paul's Channel | No Comments

Susan Elliott & Paul Yip​

The Canadian Index of Well-being was 11 years in the making and involved consultations with people across the country. The result is 64 indicators across eight domains: education, healthy populations, leisure and culture, time use, community vitality, living standards, environment and democratic engagement. Read More

Oct 24
0

Hong Kong’s poverty rate may have fallen, but has people’s quality of life risen?

By | Paul's Channel | No Comments

Paul Yip

The recent summit on poverty provided some encouraging news on alleviating the problem. Taking into account recurrent government cash benefits, the poverty rate dipped from 19.6 per cent to 14.3 per cent last year, and the number of poor people was the lowest in six years.

The poverty rate – the proportion of households earning less than half the median household income – is a relative one. The increase in the number of older adults and single-parent households over the past decade has made it harder to reduce the poverty rate, as these households are often worse off than the general population.

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