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人 (6.6%) |
7) Area of residence of people with visual impairment
| Hong Kong Island | 32,700人 (16.4%) |
| Kowloon East | 43,300人 (21.7%) |
| Kowloon West | 19,000人 (9.5%) |
| New Territories East | 45,400人 (22.7%) |
| New Territories West | 59,100人 (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%)
|
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.
