The city of Chattanooga has released the results of the 8th Annual Community Survey.
Officials asked Chattanoogans about their views on a variety of city services and over 2,000 residents responded from May to August. In addition to reporting on citywide data, the report has survey data specific to each of Chattanooga's nine city council districts.
Chattanoogans continue to give high ratings to their city and neighborhoods on key quality of life indicators in 2019. Chattanoogans believe the city is a good place to live, work raise a family and retire. However, ratings for all of these key livability factors are down slightly for 2019.
A review of the data presented reveals the most prominent issue as being perceptions about the condition of city streets. Those studying the data will also note concerns about traffic control (congestion). The 2019 survey, like previous surveys, often showed significant differences in opinions based on the district surveyed, said officials.
There is an addendum with summaries from a general analysis by council district. This addendum contains brief comments that may be of interest at a district level. As mentioned in the report, it is important for readers to recognize many insights may be gained by analyzing the data independently.
The survey was mailed to 10,000 randomly-selected households and a version of the survey was made available in Spanish. Twenty percent of households receiving the survey responded. New for 2019, officials mailed an additional 2,500 postcards with a link allowing residents to complete the survey online. As a result, an additional 135 surveys were completed. These added responses had virtually no material impact on the overall ratings. The report includes a detailed discussion of new processes and procedures used for data collection in the methodology section of the report. It was calculated the citywide survey accuracy to be within± 2.13 percent.
In comparing the demographic information provided by survey respondents to 2010 Census data (and 2018 Census Bureau estimates), officials found that the survey respondents are older and more educated than the population as a whole, as was noted in previous years. It was also found that females are over-represented and minorities are under-represented among those who returned the survey. These demographic differences are similar to previous years.
Click here to read the report.