CONFIDENTIAL
Distribution of Income
Household incomes in 1971 and 1976
The following table summarises the data collected by the 1976 By Census on the distribution of the number of households and their incomes by income brackets and compares it with
the data available from the 1971 Population Census.
1971
1976
Monthly
household
%
distribution
income
HK$
of
% distribution of
% distribution
% distribution
of
of
households
income
households
income
under 200
4.8
0.7
1.7
0.1
-
200 399
10.5
3.2
3.1
0.5
J
400 599
24.0
12.0
5.4 102
1.4
www
600 799
19.7
12.9
9.2
3.2
800 - 999
11.3
11.6
9.6
4.3
1,000 1,199
9.5
10.1
10.8
5.9
1,200
-
1,499
7.3
9.9
13.5
9.2
1,500
-
1,999
4.7
8.3
16.2
14.2
2,000 2,499
3.3
7.4
10.4
11.7
2,500 - 2,999
5.9
8.1
3.2
11.2
3,000 - 3,499
8.0
15.0
4,500 - 5,999 )
2.7
7.2
6,000 - 7,499
1.7
12.7
1.3
4.5
7,500 and over
2.2
14.7
Qualifications to the data
2. Three factors affect any comparison of the distribution of incomes between the two years:
(a) differences in definitions arise from the different approaches used. In the 1971 Census, incomes were counted de jure, whereas in the 1976 By Census they were counted de facto. Thus, in 1976, if the only bread winner of a household was away from home when the household was being enumerated, income of that household would be nil, whereas in 1971 the household's income would have included the income of the absent bread winner. The 1976 approach produces a relatively large number of zero income households. Offsetting these zero income households there would also be some households reporting
CONFIDENTIAL
/income....