Albemarle County releases 2015 Citizen Survey results

Albemarle County released the results of its 2015 Citizen Survey which indicates that citizens continue to rate overall quality of life in the County very high.

Ninety-three percent of survey respondents rated the quality of life in Albemarle County as excellent or good and 95 percent rated the County as an excellent or good place to live. Highlights of survey are listed below, and a complete copy of the survey results is available HERE.

An overview of the survey findings will be presented to the Board of Supervisors during the September 2^nd Board meeting.

• Almost all respondents (92%) rated Albemarle County’s overall natural environment as excellent or good and this rating was above the benchmark.
• About four in five residents gave excellent or good ratings to the overall quality of County services; this rating was similar to the benchmark.
• Almost all residents (95%) were very or somewhat likely to recommend Albemarle County and more than 8 in10 residents were likely to remain in the County.
• Services such as fire, fire prevention, ambulance/EMS and police services were all rated highly by more than 80% of residents. Almost all residents said they felt safe in their neighborhood and had an overall feeling of safety in Albemarle County.

The National Citizen Survey™ (The NCS) is a collaborative effort between National Research Center, Inc. (NRC) and the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). The NCS was developed by NRC to provide a statistically valid survey of resident opinions about community and services provided by local government. The survey results may be used by staff, elected officials and other stakeholders for community planning and resource allocation, program improvement and policy making. The timing of this survey provides results that will inform both the County’s strategic and ongoing planning processes.

Participating household were selected at random and multiple mailings were provided to give households more than one chance to participate. Results were statistically weighted to reflect the proper demographic composition of the community. There were 375 completed surveys. This is a representative sample and the results of this survey are statistically valid within a margin of error of plus or minus 5% points.