Survey Says: Majority of Carlsbad Residents Happy with City Services

According to a recently released scientific survey, the vast majority of Carlsbad residents are happy with city services and think the city’s quality of life is good and getting better.

 “This annual survey is one way we hold ourselves accountable,” said Interim City Manager John Coates.  “It’s important to check with those we serve to make sure they are satisfied and to track our progress over time.” 

Fully 97 percent of residents rate Carlsbad’s quality of life as good or excellent.  Residents are more positive than in previous years regarding the direction of the quality of life, with 85 percent rating it as getting better or staying about the same. 

Each year, the city conducts a telephone survey of 1,000 residents to find out how they rate the city’s performance in a wide variety of areas. Because the survey participants are selected at random through a scientific process, city officials can be confident the survey responses represent the views of the entire Carlsbad population with an approximate margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. 

“Issues of importance to residents have shifted as the City of Carlsbad has evolved over the years, but our findings continue to reflect their satisfaction year after year with the city’s ability to serve them, respond to their needs and make decisions that positively affect their lives,” said Josh Williams, president of BW Research Partnership Inc., a Carlsbad-based professional research firm that conducted the survey. According to Williams, individual city services all received good marks from residents, with many achieving 90 percent satisfaction and higher:

• Provide library services:  97 percent satisfaction
• Maintain city parks:  95 percent satisfaction
• Provide trash collection services:  95 percent satisfaction
• Provide recycling collection services: 94 percent satisfaction
• Provide fire protection and emergency medical services:  93 percent satisfaction
• Provide law enforcement services: 91 percent satisfaction
• Provide water services:  91 percent satisfaction

The city-wide survey of residents was administered by telephone (both landline and mobile) from Sept. 12 through Oct. 8, 2012, and calls averaged 20 minutes in length. A statistically representative sample of 1,001 Carlsbad residents 18 years and older completed the survey, resulting in a maximum margin of error +/- 3.08 percent (at the 95% level of confidence) for questions answered by all 1,001 respondents. 

–City of Carlsbad