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ODU releases study on quality of life in Hampton Roads

Posted at 11:55 AM, Oct 16, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-16 11:56:16-04

NORFOLK, Va. - The majority of people living in Hampton Roads think life is pretty good here!

Old Dominion University released the findings of its annual Life in Hampton Roads survey Monday. 71.2 percent of people surveyed rated quality of life as 'excellent' or 'good'.

That's one percent higher than last year.

Those surveyed could answer excellent, good, fair or poor.

The survey also looked at specific aspects of life in Hampton Roads.

When it comes to employment the results were more evenly spread with just over half of respondents saying local employment opportunities were 'fair' or 'poor'.

Arts and Culture scored well (69.8 percent 'excellent' or 'good') while the local economic conditions were split largely between 'good' (43.4 percent) and 'fair' (40.4 percent).

"They like the variety of arts and culture activities that are available. People who have school-aged children find the schools to be good or excellent," said Tancy Vandecar-Burdin, Associate Director for the Social Science Research Center at ODU. "One of the areas where we're still seeing some concerns are over the traffic congestion and the tolls."

Quality of life results were also broken down by city with numbers varying quite a bit In Virginia Beach, 90 percent rated quality of life as 'excellent' or 'good'.

The rest of the numbers by city are as follows:

Chesapeake: 82.6

Suffolk: 67.9

Norfolk: 62.5

Newport News: 61.1

Hampton: 52.3

Portsmouth: 47.7

Click HERE to view the survey in its entirety.

ODU says more results will be released every day this week.