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JCC’s Center for Community Studies Releases Results
of 15th Annual Lewis County Survey of the Community
Published: March 01, 2022 at
08:00 p.m.
JCC’s Center for Community Studies Releases Results
of
15th Annual Lewis County Survey of the
Community
Survey
Results Available Here
The Center for
Community Studies at Jefferson Community College presented the findings of
the 15th Annual
Lewis County Survey of the Community during a meeting
of the Lewis County Board of Legislators this afternoon.
The survey is an
annual inventory of the attitudes and opinions of a representative sample
of Lewis County adult residents, and has been
completed by the Center each October in the county since 2007. The primary
goal of the survey is to collect data regarding quality of
life issues of importance to local citizens, and as a result this
study provides an annual “snapshot” of life in Lewis County.
Additionally, the analysis of the 15th Annual Survey data provides an
information-rich “motion-picture” of changes in the lives of county
residents over the past fourteen years when trends are investigated via
comparing with earlier-year results. Further, a similar study has
been completed annually by the Center for Community Studies in Jefferson
County since 2000, and in St. Lawrence County since 2015, and as a result,
current regional North Country county-level comparisons are also
addressed.
A mixed-mode
sampling design was employed in this study to complete a total of 550
interviews of adult residents of the county. Working under the supervision
of the Center for Community Studies research staff in both a
social-distanced call center in Watertown and a virtual remote call center,
statistics students at the College completed 385 telephone interviews on
both the landline and cellular phones of Lewis County adult residents on
the evenings of October 26-31, 2021. An additional 165 surveys were
completed online by Lewis County adult residents after random email
invitations to participate. The result of this sampling of a total of
550 county residents is an approximate margin of error of ±5.1% after
weighting sample survey results toward Lewis County population
characteristics.
Highlights of the
2021 Lewis County survey include:
1. Quality of Life
Indicators in Lewis County –
There is strong
evidence in 2021 in Lewis County that satisfaction with quality-of-life
indicators has decreased to levels far below that which was measured in
2018 and 2019 preceding the global COVID-19 pandemic. Nineteen of the
twenty annually-measured indicators had lower
rates of responding “Excellent or Good” in 2021 than were found in the most
recent prepandemic study of the indicators.
Only “Availability of Good Jobs” shows an increase in satisfaction in 2021,
with an 11% increase in likelihood to respond, “Excellent or Good”
(increased from 25% in 2019 to 36% in 2021). Eight of the twenty
indicators in 2021 had their largest ever rate of responding “Poor”.
2. Largest Issue
Facing Residents of Lewis County
Residents in 2021
continue the recent increases in the rate of responding “government,
leadership, politics” as the largest issue facing the residents of Lewis
County at this time (22% respond this issue to the
open-ended question, a rate that was only 4% in 2019). The second
most common response in 2021 is “jobs and the economy”, however, this rate
is 18% in 2021 and it has been as high as 67% in 2010. Possibly
equally as telling is the list of community issues that in the past have
commonly emerged as responses to this open-ended survey question in Lewis
County, but were not as commonly cited in 2021, including: “healthcare”,
“drug abuse”, “poverty”, and “taxes”.
3. What direction
are things heading – In the country? In New York State? In Lewis County?
Lewis County
residents in 2021 have expressed clear and increasing concern that, in
general, things in New York State and in the entire country are heading in
the wrong direction. For example, in 2021 only 11% of participants
believe that things in the country are headed in the right direction, while
79% believe that things in the country are headed in the wrong direction
(these rates in Lewis County were 42% and 43%, respectively, in the October
2019 survey). Residents, however, are more optimistic with how things
are going locally as 35% of participants in 2021 believe that things in the
county are headed in the right direction, while only 31% believe that
things in the county are headed in the wrong direction (but - these rates
in Lewis County were 61% and 18%, respectively, in the October 2019
survey).
4. Personal
Financial and Employment Situations
Not unexpectedly,
given the 2020-2021 global pandemic, the rate of expressing that one’s
personal financial situation in the past year has “gotten better” in 2021
(12%) is the lowest measured since 2011 in Lewis County, and the second
lowest ever measured in the county. Additionally, the rate of
responding “gotten worse” in 2021 (34%) is the highest observed since
2009. Of note is the tremendous recent change in responses to this
survey question between 2019 and 2021, comparing prepandemic
to the current pandemic period. Responses of “gotten better”
decreased from 31% to only 12% between 2019 and 2021, while responses of
“gotten worse” increased from 14% to 34% since the start of the COVID-19
pandemic. However, it remains the case that the 2021 results are more
positive than was found in the recession-related year of 2008 in Lewis
County, when the rate of “gotten better” was only 12%, while the “gotten
worse” was the all-time high of 40%.
5. K-12 Education in
Lewis County
Ten of the past
twelve years of this community survey have included the following survey
question, on an agree-to-disagree scale: “Lewis County schools are
adequately preparing our young people for the technology and economy of the
future.” In 2021 Lewis County adult residents are almost twice as
likely to agree (49%) as to disagree (28%) with this educational
satisfaction statement. However, the level of satisfaction with local
K-12 education in 2021 among Lewis County adult residents has diminished
from the satisfaction shown in earlier years of this community
survey. For example, the 49% agreement rate found in 2021 can be
placed in some perspective by contrasting with 2010 results when first
surveyed in Lewis County (agree rate was 78%), and more recently by comparing
to 2019 in the county (agree rate was 63%).
6. Childcare
Challenges in Lewis County
Adults in Lewis
County in 2021 who have school-aged children in their home were asked “Do
you ever experience difficulty finding suitable childcare services for your
children?” Parents are slightly more likely to respond that they do experience difficulty finding suitable childcare
services for their children (44%) than they are to indicate that they do
not (40%). However, incidence of experiencing
difficulty finding suitable childcare services for one’s children
has increased statistically significantly and dramatically among parents in
Lewis County since last studied in 2008, when the rate of responding “yes”
was only 16% (a rate that has almost tripled to 44% in 2021).
The sponsors of
these annual surveys of the North Country communities are Jefferson
Community College, the Northern New York Community Foundation, the
Development Authority of the North Country, and the Lewis County Board of
Legislature who all provide financial support to assist in the funding of
these projects.
The entire final
report of study findings, including the detailed statistical analysis and
summary of results, along with the complete survey instrument will be
available on March 2, 2022 on the Center for Community Studies section of
the Jefferson Community College website, www.sunyjefferson.edu/community/community-studies/.
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