HONG KONG: Most Hong Kong people who move to Shenzhen are unlikely to return to Hong Kong in the next five years, according to a study by the Planning Department in Hong Kong and Shenzhen's Statistics Bureau.

The study found 61,900 Hong Kong people from 40,700 households have taken up residence in Shenzhen, of which 66 percent were men and 34 percent women. Most of these people live in Futian, Lo Wu and Longgang districts.

The Shenzhen Statistics Bureau listed 4,200 households last September to determine their socio-economic characteristics, living conditions in Shenzhen, reasons for taking up residence in Shenzhen, and their aspiration to return to Hong Kong.

The study found that 71.5 percent of respondents have no intention of returning to Hong Kong to live in the next five years. Only 10.8 percent actually planned to do so.

More than 80 percent of respondents had spent most of their holidays in Shenzhen over the past six months.

Some 35.6 percent of respondents living in Shenzhen did not have immediate family in Hong Kong.

Those with immediate family in Hong Kong received only infrequent visits from them in Shenzhen.

Nearly half of respondents did not have a established base in Hong Kong.

More than 60 percent of them had not used any health care services in Hong Kong over the past six months and up to 80.7 percent had not used any sports and recreational facilities in Hong Kong over the same period.

The majority of respondents have senior secondary and matriculation qualification and less than 20 percent of them had tertiary education.

Nearly 60 percent of them are employed, with a median monthly income of 9,937 yuan.

About 20 percent are managers or administrators.

Some 70.1 percent said they moved to Shenzhen to be closer to their families, while 25.1 percent moved for lower cost of living, 25.1 percent for work and 20.4 percent for a better living environment.

(HK Edition 08/21/2009 page1)