This report is the fifth ‘Pulse of Vermont: Quality of Life Survey’ conducted since 1990. Each has used the same methodology of conducting 20 to 30 minute phone-based interviews with a statewide random sample of adult Vermonters. The interviews addressed questions about personal well-being and perceptions of various issues related to ‘quality of life.’ Many of the questions also focused on issues related to life in Vermont, such as confidence in Vermont-based institutions, trust in other Vermonters, aspects of life that seem to be ‘under threat,’ and public priorities. Each of the studies was conducted by the Center for Social Science Research at Saint Michael’s College under the sponsorship of the Vermont Business Roundtable. Since the first study was conducted in 1990, more than 2,000 people have been interviewed, allowing analysts to document various longitudinal trends.
Trends and Historical Context
The interviews were conducted in the spring of 2010,
a time of unusual economic dislocation and hardship,
at the tail end of the ‘Great Recession’ that started
in late 2007. While the Vermont unemployment rate
remained below national averages, the economic
environment in the state was still considerably more
challenging than at the time of any of the other studies.
Nine broad social and economic trends are highlighted
that set the backdrop for this 20 year analysis of
quality of life in Vermont.
Methodology
The survey’s standard research methodology
yielded a sample of 407 adults who approximate the
demographic profile of the state. The response rate
was a healthy 60%. The recent national shift from
land-based telephones to wireless phones, however,
has caused young persons to be under-represented,
as were respondents in the lower educational and
income categories. The use of statistical ‘weighting’
adjusted for many of these imbalances.
An Online Option
For the first time this project offered all Vermonters
an opportunity to take an abridged online survey, in
part to see how the responses from a self-selected
sample might differ from the scientifically chosen
telephone interviews. In response to a Vermont
Public Radio spot and an insert in Comcast bills, just
over 500 people completed the online survey. While
responses to some items were indistinguishable
from the random telephone survey, many were quite
different, revealing more anger and anxiety over
public issues than we observed in our random survey.
Because of the self-selected nature of the respondents,
the results of this online survey are only discussed in
a separate textbox in Appendix B of this report. The
data tables are available online at the VBR website.
Individual Well-being
The five surveys covering 20 years found remarkable
stability in how Vermonters view their overall wellbeing.
Their levels of happiness and satisfaction in
various domains of life have hardly changed since
the first survey was conducted in 1990. Vermonters’
thoughts about what constitutes ‘quality of life’ in
the Green Mountain State are also stable’mostly
centered on a ‘measured pace of life,’ and the ‘natural
beauty’ of the state. Respondents’ perceptions of
neighborhood safety and their sense of belonging to
their communities also remained unchanged.
Economic Anxieties
No single issue stood out so prominently in this
year’s study as the state of the economy. In higher
proportions than previously, Vermonters expressed
a greater desire for job creation and were more
persuaded than ever that economic growth
contributes to an improved quality of life.
People were less confident in their ability to retire
comfortably, and high proportions were worried
about their ability to pay bills. Barely one in three
Vermonters reported that they were ‘financially better
off’ now than they were five years ago ‘ the lowest
level reported in the five Pulse of Vermont studies. Some
spillover effect was seen in increased worry about high
taxes and the financial situation of State government.
The unemployed, native born Vermonters and those
with less education and lower incomes were all
impacted more significantly by economic events than
other members of the sample and, as a group, gave
lower ratings to most of the measures of well-being
and life satisfaction.
Areas of Diminished Satisfactions
and Concerns
Despite the 20 year constancy that we see in the
personal well-being of Vermonters, there have also
been some areas of diminished satisfaction’job
satisfaction, for example, as well as satisfaction with
respondents’ towns, friends and families, and their
own educations. Vermonters’ trust in each other, while
far higher than national levels, has declined in recent
surveys. Increasing proportions of respondents have
less confidence in the government in Montpelier than
previously, and worrisome proportions feel that life
in Vermont is getting worse. Finally, it appears that
support for public education is less than it was in
earlier surveys.
Public Priorities
The ranking of public priorities has been a central
feature in each Pulse of Vermont study. This year,
economic matters rose to the top. The rising
importance of maintaining family farms and local
agriculture and concerns about the safety of the food
supply showed the most dramatic change in priority.
Demographic Differences
Compared with other states, Vermonters are relatively
homogeneous, yet there were still conspicuous
differences between subgroups on most measures of
well-being and quality of life. Income and education
were the most important predictors of quality of life,
and these two inter-related factors also helped explain
the differing public priorities among sample members.
Two additional attitudinal questions were strongly
associated with many measures of well-being’how
much trust we have in our fellow Vermonters and
the emphasis one puts on the primacy of protecting
one’s self and family from outside troubles. The
most trusting respondents were the most secure
financially, most committed to life in Vermont, and
had the highest confidence in many of the state’s central institutions.
Their levels of various forms of
life satisfactions were also higher, as well as their
belief that life in the state was getting better. They
also volunteered more and had a stronger sense of
belonging to their communities. Gender, marital status,
religiosity, nativity, and political orientation each also
influenced various aspects of quality of life and wellbeing.
Appendix: Education and Vermont’s
Quality of Life
Appendix C contains an essay prepared by the
authors’both lifelong educators’on why so many
quality of life issues are influenced by education. The
essay goes beyond the present data and draws upon
the authors’ own disciplinary expertise in explaining
why we should not be surprised that a state with
such a high educational level should also enjoy such
a high quality of life. The essay draws upon sociology,
economics, and philosophy to argue that education
is important not only for its role in promoting
mobility and enhancing our personal development,
but also because it is vital for economic growth and
responsible citizenship.
Source: Vermont Business Roundtable. http://www.vtroundtable.org/