iii
horizontal total column in Table 2 below, providing one bears
in mind of course the previously mentioned probable under-
estimation of young people. Such a guess would not, we argue here, be totally dissimilar from the actual age/sex distribution
of the sample members.
Table 2
Age/Sex Distribution of the Manufacturing Population (1971)
Census Report
25-39
Male
Female
Under 25
116842 (17%) 127938 (19%) 108415 (16%)
158418 (23%) 58040 (8%) 56297 (8%) 21784(3%)
40-54
55 & over Total
38028(5%)
391223
294539
275260
185978
164712
59812
685762*
*The percentage figures are based on this number to allow easy comparison with the pilot
survey.
Marital Status:
The majority of the sample (63) were single, only 37 were married;
at first this seems a surprisingly low number since 51 married
respondents in the sample were aged 20-29 years. However, this
appears to be commensurate with the average age of marriage in
Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Census Report 1971 (p 36)
20-24 years proportion married = 7.9%
Males
11
Females
25-29
20-24 11
25-29
11
11
11
!!
#t
11
=
36.5%
=
32.4%
= 79.9%
Number of Children.
Nearly a 1/3 (24) of those respondents who were married did not
have any children. This means in fact that for the total sample,
72 were childless. Of those respondents who did have children,
few had large numbers but the respondents' fairly young age range
and the fact that their children were mainly either school
children or too young to have started school suggests that the
majority of the respondents' families may not have been completed
yet.