1994 Citizen Attitude Survey__Report of Findings

Home Browse Search

METHODOLOGY AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE Discussions about conducting a Louisville Community Survey began in May of 1993 and lead to the signing of a memorandum of understanding for this project on November 19, 1993. In some measure, this survey builds upon the previous survey completed in 1990 by the City of Louisville and a review of those results is suggested. While the format of this survey differs from the 1990 effort, the same subject areas are covered and the comparison of these results with the 1990 work, will show any trend in citizen perceptions over the past four years. Design of the survey instrument began with the signing of the memorandum. A pretest of the survey was held with a number of Louisville residents in a focus group setting on February 8, 1994. This led to format and content changes in the survey. Revisions on the survey form continued into April when it was finalized. The survey was a mail -out, mail -back instrument. Using a mailing list of all Louisville home addresses provided by Announcement Management Services of Boulder, a random sample of 570 households were mailed surveys in early May. A postcard follow-up reminder was mailed to those same households about one week later. A second mailing of the survey form occurred on June 6, 1994. This mailing went to another random sampling of Louisville homes and was followed by two postcard reminders in quick succession. Date May 3, 1994 June 6, 1994 Total Table 1 MAILING/RETURN SUMMARY Mailed Surveys I Returned Surveys 570 510 1,080 177 168 345 Return Rate 31.0 % 32.9 % 31.9 % Household size in Louisville is problematic. Persons responding to this survey indicated a household size of 2.9 persons per household. The 1990 Census gives 2.68 persons per household as the correct figure. Both numbers have their problems in terms of sampling concerns, and we will split the difference between the two. A household size of 2.79 persons per household will be used to determine the number of Louisville households actually surveyed by this effort. Louisville population is estimated to be 15,000 persons in 1994. With a household size of 2.79 persons, the number of households in the community equals 5,376. Announcement Management Services (A.M.S.), however, has a household mailing list for Louisville totaling 5,797 5