REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
National Citizens Survey Results (Information Only)
Report
BACKGROUND
Sunnyvale participates in the National Citizen Survey (NCS) every two years, in odd-numbered years. The NCS is based on a national template of questions in categories such as safety, mobility, natural and built environments, economy, recreation and community engagement. The standardized assessment tool allows cities to benchmark a community's characteristics, governance, and resident participation against similar communities. It also allows us to understand our trends over time.
Polco acquired the NRC in 2019. In 2021, the NCS was refreshed. While much of the survey remains the same. Some trend data was impacted due to wording modifications that potentially could have altered the meaning for some respondents.
The NCS was sent to 3,000 randomly selected households in Sunnyvale from July 20 to August 31 of 2023. The survey received an 13% response rate. The sample size was 392 with a margin of error of 5% and a 95% confidence interval. Survey
results were weighted so that the demographic profile of respondents was
representative of the demographic profile of adults in Sunnyvale. Staff received final results in October 2023 (Attachment 1).
DISCUSSION
Sunnyvale generally received positive marks from residents on the NCS. Overall, the findings suggest that most residents experience a favorable quality of life in Sunnyvale, with 91% of survey respondents rating Sunnyvale as a "good" or "excellent" place to live and 80% rating their overall feeling of safety as "good" or "excellent." It is important to note that the overall feeling of safety has been trending down from a high of 92% in 2017, with current survey results tracking similarly to benchmark cities.
Most of Sunnyvale's ratings were similar to the national benchmark and show that Sunnyvale's residents continue to consider Sunnyvale to be a great place to live. The NCS highlights Sunnyvale's strong economic...
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