Sense of Security in Age-friendly Cities: Exploring the Trade-off between the Supply and Demand for Elderly-care Services in Hong Kong
Authorship: Kar Him Mo, Tian Cheng, Izzy Yi Jian, Weixuan Chen* (*=corresponding author)
Publication Date: November 2025
Abstract: Population ageing has intensified the demand for elderly care services (ECSs), which are central to older adults’ security and well-being in age-friendly cities like Hong Kong. However, ageing in place policies are undermined by mismatches between ECS provision and spatially uneven demand. Older adults are often forced to compromise between affordable housing, environmental quality, and access to care. This paper examines trade-offs between Hong Kong’s ECS supply and demand. It adopts a dual-scale analytical framework: (1) a district-level evaluation of ECS accessibility across Hong Kong’s 18 administrative districts, and (2) a subdistrict-level assessment based on 1,746 tertiary planning units. A Huff-based two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method is applied, with weighting parameters for traffic congestion, ageing population density, and accommodation area per capita. The findings reveal systematic disparities: central districts consistently demonstrate greater ECS coverage than peripheral areas, while subdistrict analysis highlights local cold spots where service provision is weakest despite high concentrations of older residents. These findings expose the limits of aggregate analysis, which conceals intra-district inequities, and demonstrate the cumulative disadvantages that emerge when housing constraints and mobility barriers are overlooked. Significant coverage gaps highlight the need for targeted resource redistribution within and between districts to address service shortfalls in underserved areas. By integrating geospatial analysis with distributive justice principles, the study makes three contributions: it advances methodological tools for demand-sensitive equity assessment, provides high-resolution empirical evidence of mismatches in Hong Kong, and establishes a replicable framework for redistributive planning in other rapidly ageing, high-density cities.
Publication Journal: Sustainable Cities and Society
