Citizen Survey Halle and District of Saale 1995

Quality of life, city image, housing situation, housing satisfaction, transportation, cultural offer.

Topics: Satisfaction with the apartment and the living environment; owner of the apartment; monthly rent or charge; modernisation levy; additional costs: heating and hot water costs; number of living rooms; number of square meters of the apartment; interest in the acquisition of the inhabited property; conditions under which the property would be purchased; housing equipment; occupancy in this apartment; previous place of residence; district; reasons for the last relocation; solidarity with the city and the urban district; image (semantic differential) and specific characteristics of the city of Halle; proposals for the use of funds for urban planning; preferred focal points of a future image of the city; wish to relocate in the following two years; preferred residential area; preferred status of the new apartment; reasons for a possible relocation; preferred nature of the new apartment; feeling of being threatened: by increasing the price of the cost of living, ruthlessness, violent crime, housing loss, pollution, right-wing radicalism, left-wing radicalism, illness, and unemployment (scale); political interest (local and in general); interest for activity in a party; intention to participate in elections; party preference; present work area and work area at the time of the fall of the Berlin wall; evaluation of the security of one´s own workplace; duration of the journey to work; commute frequency; place of work; means of transport used to get to and from work; reasons why not using public transport; ownership of a driving licence; availability of a car; car ownership; used means of transport for shopping, during leisure time, during work and on the way to the city center; memberships; voluntary work; importance of selected living conditions and urban services as well as satisfaction with them; evaluation of the current personal, urban and East German economic situation, and expectations for the next five years; number of children; wish to have children; frequency of use of the city´s cultural facilities and of the surrounding area; use of the library, the music school; reasons why not using the cultural offer; preference for the use of cultural institutions: in the city centre or in the immediate residential environment; importance of different life goals, life principles, areas of life and value orientations (scale).

Contacts with authorities: interest in the work of the city administration; contact with the municipal administration; last visited office; satisfaction with the conditions at this administrative office (e.g. opening hours, waiting times), signposting and accessibility); suggestions for improvements to the municipality; satisfaction with the conditions at the municipality; used source of information about the municipal political events in Halle; special interest in certain local issues; frequency of visiting the city centre of Halle; satisfaction with the offers of the city centre of Halle; suggestions for additional offers; life satisfaction; assessment of the personal future; a fair share of the national product.

Unemployed people were also asked: duration of unemployment; sources of securing livelihood; plans regarding the further professional activity.

Demography: duration of residence in Halle or in the district of Saale; sex; age (year of birth, grouped); German citizenship; marital status; household composition; school leaving certificate; professional qualification; occupational activity; occupational status; household size; handicapped or persons in need of care in the household; household income; sources of income.

Additionally coded: participation in the 1993 and 1994 citizen survey; respondent comments on the survey; weighting factors.