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Polco survey: Pearland residents rate quality of life and governance high; mobility is main area of concern
Summary
Polco presented the National Community Survey results showing high overall satisfaction (about 9 in 10 rate Pearland excellent/good) and confidence in city governance, while mobility (traffic, transit, walk/bike ease) scored lowest relative to national benchmarks; city staff and council discussed next steps for deeper regional and demographic analysis.
Polco presented results from Pearland’s 2025 National Community Survey and the companion National Business Survey at the Nov. 10 council meeting, telling council that residents rated overall quality of life and city governance highly but identified mobility as the clearest area for improvement.
Tobin McCarron (Polco) described the methodology: a random sample of 3,000 households within Pearland’s ZIP-code/GIS boundaries, 234 scientifically valid responses, and a 95% confidence interval of ±6.4 percentage points. He said staff also runs an open, non-probability web survey but the presented results are from the statistically representative sample.
Key findings McCarron highlighted include: roughly 9 in 10 residents rate Pearland as an excellent or good place to live and report intent to remain; residents express confidence in local government performance and fairness; safety and economic indicators score strongly; parks and recreation items are improving; and mobility — including ease of travel by public transportation, bicycling and walking — scored lower than national benchmarks, with only about 14% rating public transportation positively and about 34% rating overall mobility positively.
Council members asked whether low public-transit scores reflect aversion to transit or simply a lack of available service; Polco recommended follow-up engagement and offered regional benchmark comparisons and Tableau dashboards to break results down by neighborhood and demographic group. Staff said the city will overlay the survey findings with recent transit-needs work and other local analyses to determine if policy responses or outreach are warranted.
Council thanked Polco for the work and noted mobility is a regional challenge tied to growth and commuting patterns. Staff and Polco agreed to provide more detailed geographic and demographic breakdowns to help the council identify targeted responses.
