Since 1997, when Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty, there is one question I must have answered hundreds of times: “Has anything changed?” Of course it has, I’m tempted to say. Nowhere stays the same. But I have usually resorted to a simple: “No”. After all, Hong Kong’s core virtues all remain in place – its open economy, free press and personal liberties. The rule of law remains entrenched and every year on June 4, tens of thousands of people go to Victoria Park to remember those killed in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

But as the city settles into life under its third post-handover chief executive – Leung Chun-ying, who was sworn into office yesterday – that standard answer has become too glib. Over the past decade and a half, subtle but profound shifts have taken place that have left the executive-driven political system bequeathed by Britain looking more and more anachronistic.

Three changes stand out. First, the population is better educated: in 1997, less than a quarter of people aged 18 to 32 had tertiary education; now the figure is about half. Second, the population is ageing, with the median age rising from 36 to 41. Third, rather less positively, the wealth gap has widened. A recent government study found that Hong Kong’s Gini coefficient, a measure of income distribution, has made it far more unequal than even the US or the UK. In short, Hong Kong is a little smarter, a little older and a lot less equal than it was.