Quality of Life Ratings Maintain ... Even During Economic Recession

At the same time that the recession pushed up the number of people who think that job growth is too slow, why have resident ratings of quality of life continued to rise?

In 2010 NRC examined the data from thousands of resident responses to The NCS and concluded that, “Despite the economic storm, residents still see good in where they live. Could these be signs of gratitude for the stability that community offers in tough times?” (ref. in, ICMA Year book 2011 “The Hurt Dividend”). Though we’re still not sure why, ratings of quality of life floated when so many attitudes about the economy sunk during the Great Recession.

We have updated data that demonstrate not only strong and rising quality of life ratings by Americans from 2008 (the start of the great recession) to 2010, but those ratings have held steady (despite a one-time dip in 2011) to the present. At the same time, the number of Americans that thought job growth was too slow shot up and continued to rise from 2008 to 2011 and now stands at 3 in 4 Americans who think that job growth in their community remains too slow.

Let us know what you think makes residents’ sentiments about quality of life impervious to a bad or mediocre economy.