2021 Community Perceptions Survey

The Cincinnati Community Perceptions Survey was developed by the City's Office of Performance and Data Analytics and ETC Institute in the fall of 2021. This community engagement tool was designed to allow the City Administration to evaluate resident satisfaction with our services and measure that level of satisfaction against cities of similar size, location, and demographics. The survey design also allows the City to capture community priorities for investment in services over the next two years.

The survey was administered during the winter of 2021 by mail to a random sample of households across the city, and was available to complete by mail or online. The goal of 1,200 completed surveys was exceeded, with a total of 1,408 residents completing the survey. The overall residents for the sample of 1,408 households have a precision of at least +/-2.6% at the 95% level of confidence, and are demographically representative of our city's population.

This year's survey will set a baseline for Cincinnati to work from with the goal of better understanding where we are excelling in service delivery and where our local government could benefit from intentional improvement and resources. Below are some the major findings of this year's survey.

Every three out of four respondents rated the City of Cincinnati as either an excellent or good place to live and work and the majority of respondents are satisfied with the quality of life in the City.
The top three major City services that respondents think should receive the most emphasis from City leaders over the next two years, based on the sum of respondents’ top three choices, are: the maintenance of City streets, sidewalks, and infrastructure, police services, and neighborhood services.