There is no shared national questionnaire for how U.S. cities ask residents how they are doing. Firms such as Polco/NRC and ETC Institute typically draft and field these instruments. Cities commission the work and sign off on what gets asked. The topics on each form reflect different agendas, not a common national form.
We reviewed 51 public city surveys across 21 states, field years 2022 to 2025. One survey per city, held on file. Quality and satisfaction scales are never mixed. Paired gaps are within one survey only.
What cities ask
Almost every city asks about services: fire in 43 surveys, roads in 41, police in 40. Far fewer ask about the relationship with government: trust in 15, direction in 16. An overall city services item appears in 38 of the 51, though cities word it as quality, as satisfaction, or as approval of the job the city is doing.
Honest comparison is possible only where surveys ask the same questions. Quality of life and value for taxes appear together in 24 cities; quality of life and trust in 12. Those overlaps are the basis for the finding below.
Where cities ask both, quality of life runs ahead
The questions were specific. Residents rated their city’s overall quality of life, their confidence in city government, and the value they receive for city taxes and fees. Each score is the share selecting one of the top two responses on that city’s scale.
In every city that asked quality of life alongside either confidence in government or value for taxes on the same survey, quality of life scored higher:
| Pairing | Cities | Median gap | Reversals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality of life vs value for taxes | 24 | 27.2 pts | 0 |
| Quality of life vs trust | 12 | 25.0 pts | 0 |
In Dublin, Ohio, 98% gave a top-two answer on quality of life; 73% did so on value for taxes. Whether adding those questions would close the gap is a separate question. The pattern only records what residents said when both items were on the same survey.
Different questions make different scores
A percentage is only comparable when the question, the scale, and the context match. Cities produce scores between 0 and 100 on both quality scales (Excellent / Good / Fair / Poor) and satisfaction scales (Very satisfied to Very dissatisfied). Those numbers look interchangeable. They are not.
La Porte, Texas asked “Overall maintenance of City streets & sidewalks” on a satisfaction scale; Dublin asked “Street repair” on a quality scale. 61% satisfied is not 19 points behind 80% good or excellent: different questions, different response scales.
Of the 51 cities, 25 use a quality tradition, 15 a satisfaction tradition, and 11 something else. What you can compare: paired questions inside the same survey, using the same scale. What you should not: percentages from different survey traditions as if they sat on one national scale.
What a more complete survey could include
Comparing your city with public peer surveys is hard: there is no single shared questionnaire and no single peer table every city can trust. A more complete wave keeps what cities already ask well, adds the relationship questions most surveys omit, and holds every item on one scale so shared answers can be read against public peers that asked the same questions the same way.
Questions only your city needs sit beside that shared core, not instead of it.
