Who is the typical Hong Kong citizen living and working in Shenzhen?

The person is a man in his 40s, married to a mainland woman, and living in Futian, Lo Wu or Longgang districts.

Educated up to matriculation level, he is probably employed as a manager and administrator in Shenzhen.

So finds the first "Survey of Hong Kong People Living in Shenzhen," jointly commissioned by Hong Kong's Planning Department and the Statistics Bureau of the Shenzhen municipal government last year.

The findings show that 61,865 Hong Kong people from 40,731 households have taken up residence in Shenzhen.

Two-thirds are men with a median age of 43, the rest women age 35 on average. Of the total, 28,100 are employed and 10,800 retired, with the remainder either students or unemployed. The survey did not include children. For those with a job, about 67 percent and 29 percent work in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, respectively.

But of those who work in Shenzhen there is more commitment to being a resident in our neighbouring city, visiting Hong Kong just to see friends and relatives and not to use facilities.

The survey found 62 percent of those living in Shenzhen had not used any health-care services in Hong Kong in the past six months. Up to 80 percent had not used sports or recreational facilities.

Around 87 percent of the Hong Kong households live in their own homes in Shenzhen, with flat sizes ranging from 61 square meters (656 square feet) to 100 sqm, which they had bought for 210,000 yuan (HK$238,200) to 500,000 yuan - and 70 percent had fully paid up.

Those renting flats paid between 1,501 and 2,500 yuan.

The median monthly household income was 10,000 yuan. Excluding mortgage or rental payment, the median monthly cost of living in Shenzhen was 5,000 yuan.

The median salary for men was 9,154 yuan and for Hong Kong women working in Shenzhen, 6,249 yuan.

Most of those living and working in Shenzhen did not have "a usual home base" in Hong Kong.

And 71 percent of Hongkongers now living in Shenzhen say they do not intend to return to the SAR for residence in the next five years. If they do ever come back to take up residence, it will be for work or study.

For retirees, the main reason was for reunions and because living in Shenzhen is cheaper than it is in Hong Kong.

"It is believed that the phenomenon of Hong Kong people taking up residence in Shenzhen will continue. It is worthwhile for both sides to pay attention to this social phenomenon and the issues that may follow, such as the demand for cross-boundary infrastructure and the demand for housing, school places and public services," the report concluded.

A total of 4,200 households with 6,900 Hong Kong people were interviewed in September last year for the landmark survey, which covered Hong Kong residents who had lived in Shenzhen for three months or more during the six-month period before they were surveyed.