2016 Metro Atlanta Speaks Survey Results- Regional Snapshot

Atlanta Regional Commission’s 2016 Metro Atlanta Speaks survey results were recently released, which document the perceptions of 5,400 residents in a 13-county area on topics including transportation, education, the economy, civic engagement, quality of life, and arts/culture.

One of the questions asks respondents what they think is the biggest problem facing the Atlanta region. For the third straight year, transportation topped the list, with 25 percent of respondents choosing transportation as the biggest problem. A new question added to this year’s survey sheds light on the region’s challenge: Nearly 1 in 3 respondents said they frequently lacked the transportation to get where they need to go.

Metro Atlanta’s improving economy was reflected in this year’s survey. Nearly half of respondents said job opportunities in the region are “excellent” or “good” – up from about one in three in 2013. And just 12 percent of residents said the economy was the region’s biggest problem, compared to 24 percent in 2013.

However, the survey showed that many residents face financial difficulties.

Only half of respondents said they could pay for a $400 emergency right away, with cash, check or debit card. About 14 percent said would not be able to pay at all, while an additional 6 percent said they’d have to sell or pawn something. And nearly one in five residents said they sometimes skipped meals or reduced portion sizes because of a lack of money.

Other key findings from this year’s survey include:

• Support for public transit is strong, with 92 percent of respondents saying improving public transit is “very important” or “somewhat important” to metro Atlanta’s future.
• 43 percent of respondents said expanding public transit is the best long-term solution to the region’s traffic problems, while 32 percent preferred improving roads and highways.
• About 23 percent of those surveyed said crime was the biggest issue facing the region, up sharply from 17 percent in 2015 and 14 percent in 2014. However, 65 percent of respondents said they feel safe in their own communities, up from 60 percent last year.
• Metro Atlanta residents are generally upbeat about where they live, with 66 percent of respondents rating the region as a good or excellent place to live and 79 percent rating their neighborhood as good or excellent place to live.
• 35 percent of those surveyed said life will be better in metro Atlanta in 3-4 years, up from 28 percent in 2013.

The survey, conducted by Kennesaw State University’s A.L. Burruss Institute of Public Service and Research, is statistically valid for each county and the City of Atlanta, with a margin of error of 1.3 percent for the 13-county region as a whole and 4 percent to 7 percent for the individual jurisdictions.

Supporters of the 2016 Metro Atlanta Speaks survey are the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, The Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta, MARTA, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the North Fulton Community Improvement District, Invest Atlanta, Partnership Gwinnett and the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce.

For additional information about the 2016 survey, including county level results, please visit atlantaregional.com/metroatlspeaks (and read the press release). Check out the slides below (or download a PDF here) and explore results through the data dashboard.