“Big data” can shed light on what a community’s assets, challenges, and disparities are, but rarely does it explain why trends are happening and what they look like from residents’ perspectives. Cities like Pittsburgh have invested in recurring Quality of Life surveys to get more in-depth, actionable insights on how to improve residents’ experiences. Here are a few pointers about how the University of Pittsburgh has partnered with Allegheny County over the years to survey a representative group of local residents and gain insights on many dimensions of civic life.

The Research Participant Registry – One of the hardest parts of getting good survey data is ensuring it is representative of all major demographic groups in the community such as geographic area, gender, race/ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic status. The University of Pittsburgh has maintained a regional research registry (PuRRR) over the years where residents opt into being contacted for various survey research projects and provide detailed demographic information so surveyors know how well it represents county-wide demographics. Researchers can also use weighting methodology to adjust results where a demographic group is over- or under-represented.

Variety of Civic Topics – Pittsburgh has administered the Quality of Life survey every seven years since 2011, so while the survey is lengthy, it’s meant to capture as much data about residents’ direct experience as possible during these critical time periods. The most recent survey in 2023 included questions about residents’ general quality of life as well as specific civic dimensions like proximity to amenities, neighborhood cleanliness, safety, housing, environment, health, transportation and education. Researchers then have the ability to compare how respondents in demographic groups feel about each topic as well as what issues respondents who rate their quality of life particularly high or low are most satisfied with or concerned about.

Comparisons Over Time – Lastly, while researchers can add or revise questions over time to reflect changing civic priorities and emerging dynamics (ex: COVID, inflation), they ask some questions consistently to know whether residents feel things are getting better or worse versus staying the same. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have now administered the Quality of Life survey three times (2011, 2018, and 2023) and have been able to track how residents rate overall quality of life, satisfaction with their neighborhood, physical health, and feelings of safety among other topics over time.