Frequently Asked Questions

ETC Institute administered a resident survey for the City of Norfolk, VA during the fall of 2022 and again in the spring of 2024. The results of that survey were shared with the residents and were used by management to help shape recommendations for the FY 2024 FY 2025, and FY 2026 budgets.

The purpose of the survey is to objectively assess resident satisfaction with the delivery of city services and to gather input about priorities for the city. By conducting the survey every two years, we can measure where we have made progress, what may still need more improvement, and what new areas of concern for residents have emerged since the last survey.

City administration and staff will review the feedback and make appropriate improvements in programs and services. A number of the priorities raised by residents in the 2024 survey were addressed in the FY 2026 Operating Budget. While not every need may be addressed immediately, the priorities help identify what residents think are most important to work on in the future. Listening to you, our citizens, is critical to our effort in becoming a Well-Managed Government.

A random sample survey is one in which the people responding are chosen at random by the organization conducting the survey. The respondents don’t sign up to participate.

Every randomized sample survey attempts to estimate a measurement for the full population being studied by measuring a small sample. There will always be some difference between the sample and the population. Researchers estimate how much this difference is by using two related statistics: the MOE (Margin of Error) and the confidence interval. The 2024 resident survey had an MOE of +/- 3.2% with a confidence interval of 95%. This means that the true population measurement for the questions on this survey would fall within 3.2% of the sample measurement 95% of the time. In only 5% (100% - 95%) of the possible measures would the population measure more than 3.2% difference.