City of Oshkosh 2012 Citizen Survey Report

Link to Final Report

Ranking of City Services

On the list of 36 city services, "Public Library Services" ranks 11th in the "Very Important" column with 53.6%.

The top 10:

1. 79.8% - Police service
2. 79.0% - Fire protection and prevention services
3. 78.3% - Emergency medical and rescue services
4. 75.8% - Emergency warning system
5. 75.6% - Removal of snow and ice from streets
6. 70.5% - Street repair
7. 65.7% - Refuse collection services
8. 61.6% - Storm drainage systems
9. 61.5% - Traffic signs and signals
10. 54.5% - Street lighting

From page 1 of the report. [Emphasis and bullet points added.]  The 267 responses constitute a 17.8 percent response rate which is lower than the norm for citizen surveys and 

• similar to the 17 percent return in 2009, 
• below the 22.5 percent return in 2010, and 
• above the 16.5 percent in 2011. 

The relationship between sample size and precision of the survey instrument at a 95 percent confidence rate frequently used in surveys is shown below. The 267 responses create a margin of error of approximately 6.2 percent. A level of 5 percent is considered acceptable for most survey results.

Survey questions

How would you rate

• Oshkosh as a place to live?  (More than half of the respondents say "good".
• The sense of community in Oshkosh.  (A plurality say "good", with "fair" the second most frequent response.)
• Your neighborhood as a place to live?  (About half say "good", with "excellent" 2nd.)
• Oshkosh as a place to raise children?  (A plurality says "good", with "excellent" edging out "fair" for 2nd.)
• Oshkosh as a place to retire? / (100 say "good", about 85 say "fair".)
• Oshkosh's community openness and acceptance to diversity.  (About 100 say "good" and 80 "fair")
• The overall quality of life of Oshkosh? (Significant majority say "good".)
• Oshkosh as an environmentally friendly city?  ("Fair" edges out "good, by a 90-85 tally, I'm guessing.)
• Oshkosh as a place to work?  ("Good" to "fair").
• The direction Oshkosh is moving toward the future?  ("Fair" edges out "good by about a 92-84 tally, with 40 respondents saying "poor".)