When it comes to Rochester as a place to live, 99 percent of survey respondents rated Rochester as "excellent" or "good." Ninety-seven percent of surveyed residents also rated the services provided by the City as excellent or good. Both survey results were ranked #1 among over 300 local governments, which asked similar questions of their residents.

Surveys were completed by 407 randomly selected Rochester residents contacted through
the mail. The results have a five percent margin of error and a 95 percent confidence level. Participants answered questions on items such as quality of community life, public safety, government services, City employees, traffic, parking and diversity. The survey found citizen satisfaction with the community, its amenities, safety and the performance of municipal staff very high, exceeding national benchmarks in almost every area where comparisons were possible.

• 99% of respondents rated “Rochester as a place to live” excellent or good which ranked #1 among the benchmarked communities.

• 99% of the respondents rated the parks in Rochester as good or excellent and 93% of respondents found Rochester’s recreation programs to be excellent or good, both of which ranked #1 among the benchmarked communities.
• The survey results measuring public safety showed that Rochester’s citizens have an extremely high opinion of their public safety services. Safety services, including police, fire, EMS, municipal courts and emergency preparedness all ranked above the national benchmarks.
• The public’s trust in the City of Rochester was above the national benchmarks. In this category, 97% of respondents rated the “overall image or reputation of Rochester” as excellent or good which ranked #1 among the benchmarked jurisdictions.
• Respondents rated the “value of services for the taxes paid to Rochester” above the national benchmark (ranked 8 out of 307 jurisdictions).
• Among citizens who had contact with a City staff member, 91 percent responded that the “overall impression” of City staff was excellent or good.
• To learn more about the results please read the following:
  • Summary presentation of the survey results
  • Final report of Rochester's 2009 National Citizen Survey
  • Rochester's  national benchmark report
  • Rochester's geographic subgroup comparison report

These results are part of the recently completed citizen survey in the City of Rochester performed by the National Research Center, Inc. (NRC), a leading research firm known for its comprehensive studies of citizen perceptions and views. The National Citizen Survey™ (NCS) is a collaborative effort between the NRC and the International City/County Management Association. The survey has been used in over 200 jurisdictions in over 40 states. In addition to the results from the jurisdictions using The National Citizen Survey™, the NRC data base includes data from approximately 500 jurisdictions from across the County, which was used to benchmark the City of Rochester’s survey results.