The Social Science Research Center (SSRC) at Old Dominion University () recently completed data collection for the 15th annual Life in Hampton Roads (LIHR) survey. The purpose of this survey is to gain insight into residents’ perceptions of the quality of life in Hampton Roads as well as other topics of local interest such as perceptions of police, politics, the economy, education, and health. Funding for the 2024 survey was provided by the Social Science Research Center and the Dragas Center for Economic Policy. The SSRC would like to thank the College of Arts and Letters and the Office of Research for their continued support of the survey. A total of 640 telephone surveys were completed between June 4 and August 16, 2024. Surveys were completed over the telephone as they have been for all years except 2020 and 2021. This year, a mixture of listed and random-digit dial (RDD) cell phone and landline telephone numbers were used. In accordance with the practice of many social science surveys and political polls, this year we added education as a weighting variable, along with the variables that were included in our weighting protocol previously (phone type, gender, age, race, and Hispanic background). The “new” weight including education is used throughout the report except where noted. Changes to weighting this year and the temporary switch to web survey methodology during the Covid-19 pandemic limit, to some degree, the ability to compare this year’s results with those from previous years, or to confidently generalize the results to the Hampton Roads population as a whole. However, some comparisons are provided in this year’s report.
Survey Demographics
While most of the data reported here is weighted as described above, demographic data described below is unweighted to provide a description of the demographic coverage achieved by the survey. Of the 640 citizens interviewed, 54.8% were white, 26.1% were Black or African American, and 15.6% considered themselves to be another race/ethnicity. This includes 1.1% identifying as American Indian or Alaskan Native, 0.2% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 0.9% Asian and 7.8% multiracial. In a separate question, 6.4% of respondents indicated that they were of Hispanic/Latino origin.
More than 45% of respondents were male (45.3%) and 53.1% were female, and the average age was 51.5. About one in three (36.3%) of the respondents received a high school diploma or GED, completed trade or professional school, or attended some college. An additional 51.1% of respondents completed a bachelor’s or graduate degree. More than half of respondents were married (52.3%) and 16.4% were divorced, separated or widowed. Less than one-quarter of those surveyed were single and not living with a partner (21.6%) while a small portion of single people reported living with a partner (7%).
|
鲹 |
ʱԳٲ |
|
³ٱ |
54.8% |
|
Black/African American |
26.1% |
|
American Indian or Alaskan Native |
1.1% |
|
0.9% |
|
|
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander |
0.2% |
|
ѳܱپ |
7.8% |
|
ٳ |
5.6% |
|
Don’t Know/ڳܲ |
3.5% |
|
Hispanic/Latino Origin? |
ʱԳٲ |
|
۱ |
6.4% |
|
91.7% |
|
|
Don’t know/ڳܲ |
1.9% |
|
ұԻ |
ʱԳٲ |
|
Ѳ |
45.3% |
|
|
53.1% |
|
Prefer to self-identify |
0.8% |
|
ڳܲ |
0.8% |
|
Highest level of school completed |
ʱԳٲ |
|
Some grade school |
0.3% |
|
Some high school |
0.9% |
|
High school diploma/GED |
12.5% |
|
Completed trade/professional school |
3.0% |
|
Some college |
20.8% |
|
Associate degree |
10.3% |
|
Bachelor’s degree |
27.5% |
|
Graduate degree |
23.6% |
|
ٳ |
0.6% |
|
Don’t Know/ڳܲ |
0.5% |
|
Age |
Age in years |
|---|---|
|
Average age (years) |
51.5 |
|
Marital Status |
ʱԳٲ |
|
Single, not living with partner |
21.6% |
|
Single, living with partner |
7.0% |
|
Ѳ |
52.3% |
|
پǰ/貹ٱ |
9.4% |
|
¾Ƿɱ |
7.0% |
|
Don’t know/ڳܲ |
2.6% |
Only 6.1% of participants reported their annual household income as $30,000 or less, a quarter of respondents (24.4%) reported earning more than $30,000 to $75,000, while 48.1% earned more than $75,000. This is the most commonly refused demographic question in the survey, with 17.3% declining to answer and another 4.2% responding with “don’t know.”
