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About VI

Statistics on People with Visual Impairment

click here to read the report on Special Topics Report No. 63 "Persons with disabilities and chronic diseases" issued by HKSAR Census and Statistics Department in December 2021(Appendix 4).

 

1) Number of people with visual impairment

  • There are 199,600, accounting for 2.7% of the total population.

2) Disabilities of people with visual impairment

  • Among 199,600 people with visual impairment, 113,900 people (57.1%) have multiple disabilities
  • Only 85,700 people with visual impairment (42.9%) have a single disability.

3) Sex of people with visual impairment

Male 80,300 (40.3%)
Female 119,200 (59.7%)

 

4) Age distribution of people with visual impairment

Age 15 and below 3,200  (1.6%)
15-29  3,100  (1.6%)
30-39  2,600  (1.3%)
40-49  7,200  (3.6%)
50-59  17,500  (8.8%)
60-64  19,200  (9.6%)
65-69  23,800  (11.9%)
Age 70 and above  122,900  (61.6%)

 

5) Marital status of people with visual impairment

Single 22,500 (11.3%)
Currently married 99,400 (49.8%)
Widowed/ Separate/ Divorced 77,600 (38.9%)

 

6) Educational attainment of people with visual impairment

No schooling/

Pre-primary

41,200 (20.7%)
Primary 67,400 (33.8%)
Secondary  68,600 (34.4%)
Post Secondary Non-degree          9,100 (4.6%)
Degree                   13,200 (6.6%)

 

7) Area of residence of people with visual impairment

Hong Kong Island 32,700 (16.4%)
Kowloon East 43,300 (21.7%)
Kowloon West 19,000 (9.5%)
New Territories East 45,400 (22.7%)
New Territories West 59,100 (29.6%)

 

 8) Type of housing of people with visual impairment

Public rental housing 75,200 (37.7%)
Private housing 77,700 (38.9%)
Subsidised sale flat 35,700 (17.9%)
Other permanent housing 11,000  (5.5%)

   

 9) Acitivity status of people with visual impairment (Age 15 and over, a total of 196,300 people for calculation)

Economically active  29,100 (14.8%)
Economically inactive

167,200 (85.2%)

  • Retired persons          136,500 (69.5%)
  • Home-makers            10,300 (5.2%)
  • Students                      1,400 (0.7%)
  • Others                          19,100 (9.7%)

 

10) Employed person with visual impairment by age

Age 15-29   1000人 (3.9%)
Age 30-39 1,500人 (5.7%)
Age 40-49 4,300人 (16.2%)
Age 50-59 8,900人 (33.8%)
Age 60-64 5,500人 (20.8%)
Age 65-69 3,600人 (13.5%)
Age 70 and above 1,600人 (6.2%)

 

11) Employed person with visual impairment by sex

Male 13,200人 (49.7%)
Female 13,300人 (50.3%)

 

12) Employed person with visual impairment by industry

Manufacturing 900人 (3.5%)
Construction 2,300人 (8.7%)
Import/export trade and wholesale 2,500人 (9.6%)
Retail, accommodation and food services

3,200人 (11.9%)

Transport, storage, postal and courier services, information and communication and communications 3,400人 (12.9%)
Financing, insurance, real estate, professional and business services 7,700人 (29.0%)
Public administration, social and personal services 6,300人 (23.7%)

                       

13) Employed person with visual impairment by occupation

Managers and administrators, and professionals and associate professionals 9,200人 (34.9%)
Clerks 3,900人 (14.7%)
Service workers and shop sales workers 3,500人 (13.1%)
Craft and related workers 1,500人 (5.6%)
Plant and machine operators and assemblers 1,400人 (5.3%)
Elementary occupations 7,000人 (26.4%)

                                     

14) Employed person with visual impairment by monthly employment earnings

Less than HK$4,000 2,200人  (8.5%)
HK$,4000 - HK$6,999   1,800人  (6.9%)
HK$7,000 - HK$9,999  2,500人  (9.3%)
HK$10,000 - HK$14,999   7,100人  (26.7%)
HK$15,000 - HK$19,999 3,100人  (11.8%
HK$20,000 and above 3,600人  (21.4%)
HK$30,000 and above 6,100人 (23.2%)

         

 

Remark: "Seeing difficulty" is stated as visually impaired person in Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department report.

"Persons with seeing difficulty”referred to those who had perceived themselves as having long-term difficulty in seeing with one eye or both eyes whether with or without correcting glasses/contact lenses or using specialised visual aids/tools at the time of enumeration, farsightedness, astigmatism and presbyopia were not included.

According to the survey findings, persons with seeing difficulty were classified into three categories as a proxy indicator on their severity of disability:

(i) unable to see at all;

(ii) required a specialised visual aid in order to be able to see; and

(iii) not required a specialised visual aid.