Stafford survey shows stronger safety and economic optimism, flags affordability gaps

Andrew Spence, Stafford County’s chief director of information technology, introduced results from the county’s 2024 National Community Survey and directed residents to the online dashboard at StaffordCounty.va.gov/communitysurvey. Polco’s director of survey research, Jada Rocha, told the board the random-sample portion was conducted March 1–April 12 and returned 469 responses (about an 11% response rate, margin of error roughly ±4.5%); an open participation survey returned roughly 617 additional responses.

Polco’s presentation showed broadly positive ratings for safety and many transportation items. Rocha said “about 8 in 10 residents felt very or somewhat safe from fire, flood, or natural disaster, from violent crime, and also from property crime.” She told supervisors that residents’ expectations about the county economy rose sharply: in 2022 about 9% of respondents expected the economy to improve their income in the next six months; in 2024 that figure was 36%.

The consultant also identified several areas of decline. Rocha highlighted statistically significant drops since 2022 in residents’ views of availability and affordability of health services, affordable quality food and affordable mental health care; availability of affordable childcare and K–12 education also fell. Board members asked for more detail on those findings and on the survey’s geographic and demographic breakdowns.

Supervisor English pressed on sample size and asked for a copy of the survey instrument; Rocha said a PDF of the instrument is available and that the interactive Tableau dashboard allows staff and the public to “drill down by sub area” and view cross-tabulations (by district, age, income and other variables). Dr. Young and other supervisors urged staff to use the findings in budget and strategic planning; Spence said the county will incorporate survey results into annual budgeting and strategic-plan updates.

Polco and county staff also noted the county may use short follow-up surveys through the same platform to collect open-ended explanations where specific ratings declined. The board did not take action at the meeting; staff and Polco said the full report and the interactive visualizations are available online for review.