Majority of Residents Rate Quality of Life ‘Good to Excellent’
In the recent resident survey taken by the City of Missoula, nearly 75 percent of residents surveyed said their quality of life was ‘good or excellent’.
At the Missoula City Council Committee of the Whole ZOOM meeting on Wednesday, Chief Administrative Officer Dale Bickell shared the results of the survey.
“Asked the question of rating your quality of life, the vast majority of Missoula residents rate their quality of life excellent or good,” said Bickell. “Here's that comparison to 2018, so it's very similar lightly less in 2021 presumably as we're emerging from the pandemic but people generally rate their quality of life in Missoula as excellent or good.”
The actual numbers are 40.9 percent ‘good’ and 34.4 percent ‘excellent’.
According to Bickell, when it came to the most important issues listen by survey respondents, the first choice was fully expected. Housing topped the list for the second straight survey.
“Housing was the top response in 2018, and it increased in 2021,” he said. “As you see it’s the housing challenges and housing crisis we're in now, but then things started changing a little bit. Homelessness and poverty jumped up to the number two issue facing Missoula in 2021, and it was down the list in 2018.”
Continuing on the most important issues according to the poll, Bickell said jobs and the cost of living ranked high, as well.
“Jobs and the cost of living came in third with a similar percent of people, and then taxes and spending, which was the second most priority in 2018, dropped to number four in 2021,” he said. “Traffic management and congestion are similar, but it's less of a concern in both polls. Streets and other infrastructure changed significantly as well. Number four on the list in 2018 is now dropped down the list.”
The random telephone survey of registered voters within the city limits interviewed 603 people.
Read the survey for yourself linked here.
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