The New North End
Quality of Life Survey Results
A survey intended to reflect the general quality of life was conducted among eight
specific Burlington neighborhoods. The New North End was chosen as a distinct
neighborhood on the north end of Burlington’s political boundaries. As a result of
compiling and interpreting 216 surveys conducted in the New North End our group has
developed a statistical picture of the quality of life among the neighborhood. Our results
have revealed the New North End as both similar to and different from the quality of life
in the greater Burlington community. The results are broken down into five section, an
introduction and four types of capital: human, social, built, and natural.
Respondents were asked to answer four groups of questions about importance and
how satisfied they are with various things that may help define their quality of life. The
respondents where asked to rate the four capitals on a scale of 1 to 5 for importance: 1
(very important), 2 (important), 3(neither important or unimportant), 4 (unimportant), and
5 (very unimportant). Respondents where then asked to rate the four capitals on their
happiness, on a scale of 1 to 5: 1 (very happy), 2 (happy), 3 (neither happy or unhappy), 4
(unhappy), and 5 (very unhappy).
Introduction
The New North End consists of mostly young adult household residents. The
mean age response is determined to be 44.92 years old. The median age is 43 years old,
and the mode age is 50 years old. The standard deviation for these stats is 15.78. Census
data taken from surveys of the New North End indicate that the majority of the
population falls in the age range between 35 to 49 years old. These results indicate that
the quality of life survey was successful at reflecting the results of an alternative survey
data set.
Our surveyed population was 38% male and 62% female. Census data for the
New North End indicates that their surveyed population was 53% female and 47% male.
Based on a question regarding household type, 62% of residents that were surveyed were
either individuals living alone or married partners with children. The census data also
reflects this statistic and indicate that the number of individuals living alone was slightly
more than the number of individuals partnered with children. Since the Census, the New
North End might have seen an increase in the number of families. Many respondents
described the neighborhood as family oriented.
The highest percentage of individuals responding to a survey question regarding
income reported earnings of 30-60 thousand dollars a year (35%). In second, 23% of
individuals surveyed reported a yearly income of 15-30 thousand dollars and 23% of
individuals surveyed reported a yearly income of 60-120 thousand dollars. Only 9% of
those who responded have a yearly income of over 120 thousand dollars.
Based on a survey question asking residents about their employment status, 71%
were employed, 20% were unemployed, and 9% were in school. The New North End is
well educated, 64% of surveyed individuals have a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree,
or an associate’s degree. 94% of surveyed individuals were white/Caucasian.
Human
The community members of the New North End considered investments in
themselves slightly less important than the rest of Burlington. They had a mean
importance score of 1.57, compared to the overall score of 1.46. The New North End
ranked importance of human capital in the following order: Health, Job, Education,
Mental Well-Being, and Exercise. The city of Burlington ranked the importance of these
items similarly: Health, Mental Well-Being, Education, Job, and Exercise. The primary
difference was Mental Well-Being, and Job importance trading places. The
neighborhood also rated Jobs and Health as more important than the rest of the city of
Burlington. In all other categories, Burlington had a greater importance ranking than the
neighborhood.
The New North End considered themselves slightly less happy with the
investments made in themselves, in comparison to city of Burlington residents as a
whole. In Education, Health, Mental Well-being, and Exercise, Burlington’s average
happiness scores were all lower than the scores of the New North End, indicating greater
happiness. However, the residents were slightly happier with their jobs than the rest of
Burlington, with an average score of 2.15 compared to Burlington’s mean score of 2.28.
93 percent of neighborhood residents are covered with Health Insurance. This closely
correlates with the overall rate of 91 percent covered with insurance in Burlington.
Finally, the average length of time on a specific job for residents was 9.41 years.
Social
The New North End responses to social capital questions provide for interesting
data. When asked about how important relationships with family and friends are to the
happiness of ones life, the respondents gave a mean score of 1.31. After looking at the
score of actual happiness of this same question, those surveyed said that happiness was a
1.65. Both importance and happiness of this category ranked first in high scores. The
same went for safety. Safety’s mean score of importance was a 1.46, and its happiness
score was 1.75. Public education was ranked as being the third most important with a
score of 1.62, yet it ranked 7th in actual happiness with a score of 2.34. This might
suggest that residents are not happy with the current school system. This is a huge
deviation, but it also has to be known 46% of these residents have bachelor or graduate’s
degrees.
Government importance scored fourth with a score of 1.73, but the happiness of
government fell to 2.13. Organizations ranked last in importance although it was it was
still important to them with a score of 2.18, while the happiness of the organizations
ranked 4th with a score of 2.07. The organizations must be doing a good job. When
asked about the importance of relationships with people in their own neighborhood, they
scored a 2.32. Safety within the neighborhood ranked second in importance and second
in happiness, with scores of 1.28 and 1.65 respectfully. The data shows the New North
End gave the second highest average mean importance value to social organizations out
of all Burlington neighborhoods. The New North End had the highest average mean
score for the importance of safety. This might suggests that safety has been an issue in
the past and community members are concerned with security. Safety concerns were also
convey as a few respondents brought up issues of crime and violence within the
community.
There is one variation between the happiness of public education and the
happiness of higher education. The New North End is the least happy with public
education, while Burlington as a whole ranked it third in happiness. The rankings
switched with higher education. The New North End ranked higher education third, and
the rest of Burlington ranked higher education as dead last.
The data suggests that second to the Hill’s neighborhood, the New North End was
most happy with the social organizations listed. This finding is fascinating due to the fact
that the Hill neighborhood is one of the wealthiest and the New North End is one of the
lower income neighborhoods in the survey. Among all neighborhoods’ mean average
value for social services, the New North End ranked the highest happiness of
Government services (e.g. police and fire protection, city government), a sense of
community, and organizations that they belong to, as the most important. The data
suggests that the New North End might have stronger values for social services and
community then other Burlington neighborhoods.
One last aspect of social capital is the beloved pets of the community. The results
found that 60% of those surveyed in New North End owned pets, 132 cats, 81 dogs, and
29 other types of pets are owned. The average distribution of cats and dogs per
household was .609 cats and .375 dogs. According to those surveyed, the question
targeting pet’s importance to the happiness of the individuals life scored a 1.76. All of
this information concerning animals and their importance is almost identical to the whole
data set for Burlington.
Built
It appears that residents of the New North End are relatively happy with built
capital. People are approximately equally happy with both public and private investments
in their neighborhoods, although, private investments such as shops, restaurants, and
offices, are regarded to be slightly more important than public investments. Regarding
personal investments, residents held a high level of importance on things they own or
rent, such as a home, car, furniture, and clothes. This is seen clearly from the New North
End’s rating of importance and happiness of various items, many being things owned or
rented.
Residents rate the following things at almost equal rates of importance and
happiness. Items were ranked from greatest to least level of importance, the most
important being the home, then food and drink, transportation and household goods
equally, personal accessories and entertainment equally. These same things rated
according to the level of happiness each brings to the individual or household reads
slightly differently. The list from most important to least leads off with pets, followed by
home, food and drink, personal accessories and entertainment equally, and transportation
and household goods equally.
Out of 216 individuals surveyed, about one-third is displeased with their current
level of income. Of those 52 individuals who are displeased, on average desire $45,969
more than they currently receive. This speaks volumes; one-third of residents in the New
North End are displeased with their current income. This might suggests problems with
underemployment, in Burlington. Of the residents surveyed, almost fifty percent of
which are unaware with the town’s local currency, Burlington Bread.
Natural
When asked about natural capital and how it affects people in the New North
End, a couple of slight statistical differences were found. The importance of a quality
natural environment is slightly more important to the New North End than the rest of
Burlington. They had an average of 1.49 versus 1.53 for Burlington. This is a 2.6%
difference. As for how happy they are with this aspect of their environment, they are
happier than the rest of the city with it. An average happiness rating of 2.01 versus 2.09
gives them a difference of nearly 4%.
Conclusion
The New North End has revealed its own identity through the findings of the
survey. It will be fascinating to see what is to come of the results as the information is
presented to the Legacy Project and community member of Burlington. Although
Burlington is a relatively small city, its neighborhoods can show distant identities and sub
populations that community member might not be aware of if it where not for survey’s
like this one.