York County residents rate quality of life high but flag housing and transportation in Polco survey

York County supervisors heard results of a Polco/National Research Center community survey on Sept. 2, with presenters reporting that 440 completed responses from a probability mail sample produced a 15% response rate and a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The survey, carried out by Polco/NRC for York County, asked residents to rate 10 facets of community livability and how important those facets should be as county priorities over the next two years. Jason, a Polco/NRC representative, told the board that the county opted to receive both national benchmarks and a custom comparison to other Virginia jurisdictions.

"One of the major advantages of local governments participating in our community surveys is this opportunity to compare your ratings to those from communities across the nation," Jason said. The presentation emphasized benchmarking and trend monitoring as uses for the results.

Why it matters: County staff and supervisors said the results will inform long-range planning and budget priorities. The survey’s headline findings — high overall satisfaction with quality of life, strong ratings for safety and K–12 education, and weaker ratings for…