Raising, Children, Hong, Kong

I am not surprised to see the results of the survey conducted by HSBC on raising children in Hong Kong. The city is ranked 11th out of 14 cities in terms of suitability for raising children and the survey involved 2,155 respondents/expats coming from 48 countries who talked about their experiences in raising children on these 14 cities.

Factors include the costs of raising children, the time children spent on outdoor activities and studying, the number of new languages children learned, and whether youngsters would remain in a place after they grew up.

Hong Kong earned the reputation as the third most expensive city to raise kids after Britain and United Arab Emirates. Two-thirds of 66 Hong Kong expats said that Hong Kong is more expensive than their home countries.

Only 3 percent of these respondents mentioned that their children will stay in Hong Kong after they grow up probably because living in Hong Kong is more expensive and opportunities are plenty in their home countries.

Health-wise, Hong Kong is at the same level as United States and Britain among the least attractive places to live as evidenced by reduced time in playing sports, eating more junk food, spent more hours watching television, and playing more computer games after moving into Hong Kong. If I may add, there is also the discipline factor and pollution issues.

But it's not all bad for Hong Kong. 36 per cent (ranked fifth) of respondents said that their children have studied more, and 22 per cent of them admitted that their kids have learned a new language (ranked eighth).

It's sometimes difficult to reconcile that children spent more hours watching TV and playing video games translated to more time to study (which requires eating more junk food to keep them awake?) and learn new language but that's maybe how things work.

Spain, France and Germany were seen as the best places to raise children, while Spain, India and the mainland were the cheapest.