Demographic Characteristics of the Sample
The demographic profiles of the sample are exhibited in Tables 1A-F. The age profile of the sample is illustrated in Table 1A. A large percentage of the respondents (71.6%) fell between the ages of 26 to 55 with the largest portion (30.6%) in the 36-45 year-old category. Table 1B represents the number of years the respondents had lived in the Town of Cary. As for years of residency, 72.5% of the respondents had lived in Cary for 6 years or more. There was also a large percentage who had lived in the Town for only 2-5 years (21.6%).
|
Age Groups |
% |
|
Years in Cary |
% |
|
18-25 |
7.3 |
|
0-1 |
6.0 |
|
26-35 |
20.5 |
|
2-5 |
21.6 |
|
36-45 |
30.6 |
|
6-10 |
23.6 |
|
46-55 |
20.5 |
|
11-20 |
25.6 |
|
56-65 |
10.6 |
|
Over 20 |
23.3 |
|
66-75 |
6.3 |
|
|
|
|
Over 75 |
4.3 |
|
|
|
Table 1C shows the sample to be a highly educated group. Most of the respondents had graduated with a college degree (67.3%) with 23.6% of those earning a graduate degree and 6.8% a PhD, JD, or MD degree. Table 1D details the racial breakdown of the sample showing 83.2% of the respondents were Caucasian, 5.6% were Asian, 4.1% were African-American, and 3.1% were Hispanic.
|
Education |
% |
|
Race |
% |
|
High School or Less |
10.6 |
|
Caucasian |
83.2 |
|
Some College |
22.1 |
|
Asian |
5.6 |
|
College Degree |
36.9 |
|
African-American |
4.1 |
|
Graduate Degree |
23.6 |
Hispanic |
3.1 | |
|
PhD/JD/MD |
6.8 |
|
Other |
4.1 |
There were high levels of household income for the sample (Table 1E). This is illustrated in the high percentage of respondents in the over $100,000 (37.9%) and $70,001-$100,000 (21.1%) income categories. In terms of gender, 54.4% of the sample were female and 45.6% were male (Table 1F).
|
Income Levels |
% |
|
Gender |
% |
|
0-$20,000 |
2.5 |
|
Male |
45.6 |
|
$20,001-$30,000 |
7.3 |
|
Female |
54.4 |
|
$30,001-$50,000 |
13.6 |
|
|
|
|
$50,001-$70,000 |
17.7 |
|
|
|
|
$70,001-$100,000 |
21.1 |
|
|
|
|
Over $100,000 |
37.9 |
|
|
|
The largest percentage of the respondents (86.7%) resided in a single family home, 7.8% in an apartment, 4.8% in a townhouse/condominium, while 0.8% resided in a mobile home or retirement home. There were 93.7% of the respondents who indicated they were registered voters and 61.0% of those voted in the 2009 local elections. Selected crosstabulations on voter status (B449-B456) and voted in 2009 local elections (B457-B464) are included in Appendix B. Several of the means for the service dimensions in the survey were converted into grades. The mean score was changed into a percentage (using 9 as the denominator) and compared to the grading scale shown in Table 1G. This was done for those questions that rated the services on the 9-point scale using the very poor (1) to excellent (9) response set. Grades tend to be easier to understand and use in goal setting for planning cycles. The respondents were also asked if they would agree to participate in a focus group session to give Cary even more insight into their citizen’s opinions and attitudes. Approximately 44% of the respondents agreed to participate in a session. This reflects the citizen’s strong involvement and concern for the Town.
The report will include selected crosstabulations expressly chosen by the Town for specific questions in the survey (Appendix B). It is important to exercise caution in the interpretation of crosstabulations. They will act to segment or slice up the sample size and in turn increase the margin of error for a question. It is difficult to interpret crosstabulations with small sample sizes for a specific demographic subgrouping. For that reason, sample sizes with less than 10 respondents in a subgroupings will not be discussed. Keep in mind that any of the crosstabulations with a sample size this small will have exceptionally high margins of error. As for terminology, a subgroup would be a specific breakout category in a particular group such as 18-25 age group or $20,001-$30,000 income level.
The percentages in the tables are rounded off to one decimal place. Due to rounding this may result in row totals that do not always add up to exactly 100.0%. The demographic recodes for the crosstabulations were age (18-25, 26-55, 56-65, over 65), education (high school/some college, college degree, PhD/JD/MD), race (Caucasian, Asian, African-American, Hispanic, Other), and years in Cary (0-1, 2-5, 6-10, over 10).
Rating (%)
|
Grade
|
97-100
|
A+
|
94-96
|
A
|
90-93
|
A-
|
87-89
|
B+
|
84-86
|
B
|
80-83
|
B-
|
77-79
|
C+
|
74-76
|
C
|
70-73
|
C-
|
67-69
|
D+
|
64-66
|
D
|
60-63
|
D-
|
Below 60
|
F
|