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English was spoken at home by three per cent of the population while another 35 per cent claimed that they could speak the language.
Over the last decade, the number of domestic households increased by 28 per cent from 1.5 million to 1.9 million. As it increased at a faster rate than the population, the average household size decreased from 3.7 to 3.3.
About 64 per cent of the domestic households consisted of only one unextended nuclear family, that is, a married couple with or without never married children or a single parent with one or more never married children.
Mr Ho said that some 3.1 million persons, or almost half of the population, lived in public housing, including public rental housing and subsidized sale flats. Another 2.9 million or so lived in private permanent housing. About 0.12 million persons lived in temporary housing.
Housing conditions improved significantly during the last ten years. The degree of sharing, which is measured by the average number of domestic households in a dwelling, decreased from 1.11 to 1.05.
The proportion of domestic households living in rooms/cocklofts/bedspaces in private residential flats decreased significantly from 13 per cent in 1986 to five per cent this year and that in temporary housing decreased from eight per cent to two per
cent.
The median income of domestic households this year was $17,500, an increase of 239 per cent over that 10 years ago.
Both the English and the Chinese versions of the report "Summary Results" will be on sale as from tomorrow (Wednesday).
Purchase of the publications can be made at the Government Publications Centre, ground floor, Low Block, Queensway Government Offices, 66 Queensway, Hong Kong. The publications are also on sale at the Publications Unit of the Census and Statistics Department, 19th floor, Wanchai Tower, 12 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong.
A series of reports on the more detailed results of the 1996 Population By- census will be published later in stages.