Cover: Satisfaction with life and local area among people who work in the Cambridge area
Read Online

Satisfaction with life and local area among people who work in the Cambridge area

Results from the Cambridge Ahead Quality of Life Survey

by Bryn Garrod, Catherine L. Saunders, Marco Hafner, Christian Van Stolk

Download eBook for Free

FormatFile SizeNotes
PDF file 1.5 MB

Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 10 or higher for the best experience.

In light of the continuing economic success of the Cambridge area, Cambridge Ahead, a membership organisation of large Cambridge area employers, set up its Quality of Life project to answer the following questions:

  • Is living in the Cambridge area an attractive proposition?
  • What does the answer to the first question mean for developing the Cambridge area not only as a place to work but also as somewhere to live?

This report is an analysis of a survey that RAND Europe conducted in 2014 on the employees of the Cambridge Ahead membership and a small number of other organisations. The survey explored respondents' experiences of local services, and their satisfaction with the local area and with their lives overall. We outline the main findings below:

  • Housing and traffic are the areas of most concern.
  • Respondents are satisfied with other local services and amenities.
  • Satisfaction with local services and amenities varies across demographic groups.
  • People who work in Cambridge live across a wide area.
  • There are noticeable differences between people living inside and outside the city.
  • Satisfaction with different areas is associated with satisfaction with local services and amenities.
  • Satisfaction with leisure, education and health facilities shows a significant relationship to local-area satisfaction.
  • The results suggest a significant relationship between local-area satisfaction and life satisfaction.
  • Making the Cambridge area a better place to live requires a rounded approach.

Table of Contents

  • Chapter One

    Introduction

  • Chapter Two

    Local services and issues in the Cambridge area

  • Chapter Three

    Drivers of life and local area satisfaction

  • Chapter Four

    Further areas for examination

  • Appendix A

    Organisations in the sample

  • Appendix B

    Methods

  • Appendix C

    Cambridge Ahead Quality of Life Survey

  • Appendix D

    Survey questions measuring local area and life satisfaction, personal factors, and satisfaction with local services

  • Appendix E

    Location of respondents

  • Appendix F

    Drivers analysis coefficients, confidence intervals and p-values

  • Appendix G

    Variation in satisfaction with local services across different personal characteristics

Research conducted by

The research described in this report was prepared for Cambridge Ahead and conducted by RAND Europe.

This report is part of the RAND Corporation Research report series. RAND reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.