no substantial evidence that high density and crowding produce consistently negative effects on humans

Life satisfaction in crowded urban environment | elearn9.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk

Public housing estates, which provide residence for nearly 2 million people in·1977, allow only a per capita living space of 35 square feet for their dwellers (in old type Mark I and II resettlement estate, only 24 square feet

It is commonly agreed that high density and crowding produce negative effects on animals, but there is no substantial evidence that high density and crowding produce consistently negative effects on humans (Freedman, 1973)

Furthermore, the urban dwellers in Hong Kong are long used to live in such an environment. High density and limited space do not make them feel “surrounded by a lot of people is not enjoyable", “the number of people in Hong Kong is too many and has effect on one’s daily life", or even feel "being surrounded by too many people". The limited space in the household does not force the people to spend more time outside, and the high population density does not keep the individual away from recreations in public open space (see table 3). These all help to explain why life satisfaction is not being affected by high density and limited space in Hong Kong.

but at least, to make people more satisfied with life, the authority should continue to explore ways through which the housing/environmental conditions, particularly in areas of lower socioeconomic status, can be ameliorated.
 
The finding that "high density and limited living space have only minor or negligible effect on individual life satisfaction” does not imply that the problem of overcrowding can be ignored when planning for future development. It is difficult to set any standard for the private sector, but it is not impossible to improve the present standard of 35 square feet per person in public housing estates. Secondly, at present the population density in lower class residential (private housing) areas is generally higher than that set for public housing estates, because certain proportion of space has been reserved for communal usage in the latter. And we do not see any reason why similar planning standard cannot be applied to areas for the development of private housing for lower or lower-middle class people so that the congested condition of private, lower class residences can partly be improved. Furthermore, to deal with overconcentration of population in inner-city areas, Hong Kong should speed up the development of new towns in the New Territories. And the authority, besides concerning itself with building the physical environment, should also pay more attention to the social structures, institutions, culture and subcultures when planning for the development of new urban communities. So the people may feel more happy to move from the old urban areas into a new town.

Life satisfaction in crowded urban environment _ elearn9.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk