New Survey Finds People Really Like Living in Eagan

Results from the latest survey of residents again demonstrate that—overwhelmingly—the people of Eagan like living here. That finding is not new, but now policy makers know that Eagan scores very well not just here at home, but in comparison to national benchmarks.

A total of 95 percent of Eagan residents surveyed last fall rate the quality of life in Eagan as excellent or good according to results presented by an independent research firm to the Eagan City Council on Jan. 10. And 98 percent of residents polled rate Eagan excellent or good as a place to live.

Both numbers are between 10-19 points higher than a national comparison set of more than 400 cities according to the National Research Center (NRC) out of Boulder, Colorado.

“When compared to national benchmarks, Eagan residents rated their community and its governance significantly higher on more than two-thirds of the survey items—in fact Eagan was among the top 10 communities on 19 characteristics,” said NRC Vice President Michelle Koybayashi in a statement.

“These results are especially impressive given that most of the jurisdictions included in the national database are high performing ones,” added Kobayashi.

Eagan’s police, fire department, sewer services and parks were all rated highly by nine of ten residents and were among 14 indicators to receive higher marks than comparison cities selected to match Eagan’s population and income levels, according to a news release.

In fact, the majority of city services received high approval ratings in the 80th or 90tj percentiles, and even traffic flow on major streets received approval from 78 percent of residents (which ranks Eagan No. 9 in the nation when compared to 319 other communities).

Residents feel extremely safe (94 percent), are happy with the quality of new development (87 percent) and approve of the overall direction the city is taking (84 percent).

“We will to continue to focus on delivering high quality services at an affordable price,” said Eagan City Administrator Dave Osberg. “These results will help staff and the City Council zero in on where we can still improve and what’s important to our residents.”

One of the interesting findings of the 2016 study was that 68 percent of residents reported that they had not volunteered in Eagan within the last year, meaning volunteerism and community engagement may be an area ripe for further study.

Eagan residents reserved their lowest service ranking for cable TV providers like Comcast and CenturyLink which received only a 50 percent rating of excellent or good.

NRC sent written surveys last September to 1,500 randomly selected Eagan households. Nearly 500 residents responded, yielding a 95 percent confidence level in the results and a margin of error of +/- 4 percent, according to city officials. Results from the full survey can be viewed here.

Image via City of Eagan