Living on the Sunshine Coast survey
Council is responding to community questions about the perceptions of the annual liveability survey.
Living on the Sunshine Coast survey clarification
Council is responding to community questions about the annual liveability survey. This has been undertaken on behalf of council each March/April, for the past three years.
Council is aware there are some misconceptions relating to this survey. We would therefore, like to clarify:
- the purpose of the survey
- that the identity of respondents is not shared with council
- who is conducting the survey
- what will happen to the survey responses
- how respondents’ privacy will be protected.
The purpose of the Living in Place survey
Living in Place is a survey designed to better understand our residents’ perceptions of what makes somewhere a good place to live. Council conducts this survey to help inform the policies, programs and services it provides. We can better reflect the priorities of our community.
Living in Place will give us a sense about how our residents feel about the liveability of their neighbourhood and local area overall.
It will also tell us which individual liveability attributes including:
- feeling safe
- affordable decent housing
- access to the natural environment, etc.
need to be maintained and improved.
Living on the Sunshine Coast will collect the views of 1,500 residents across the Sunshine Coast Council local government area in 2023.
Respondents identities
Respondents to the survey remain anonymous. The results of the survey are reported back to the community on a de-identified basis once the survey results have been collated.
Council is not provided with any information which would identify the name or address of respondents to the survey.
The survey provider
.id is conducting the survey on behalf of council and has done so for the previous two years.
.id is a leading Australian demographic and economic consultancy servicing local government. More than 300 local governments across the nation work with .id. We already use a number of their online data platforms to publish statistical profiles on the region’s economy and the community. We have done so for many years.
What happens to survey responses
Survey responses will be analysed by .id and reported back to council in aggregate form by May 2023. No individual survey responses or identifying information will be provided to us.
To keep our community informed, we publish the annual findings of the survey on our website.
Original survey disclosure of sponsorship
Respondents are notified that the survey is being conducted on behalf of council before they are asked to submit their response. Respondents have the option to not submit their response if they do not wish to have it considered as part of the survey results that are reported back to council.
Participation in the survey is, and always has been, voluntary. Any respondent has the opportunity to opt out of submitting their response.
To alleviate any misconception which may exist, we have requested that the online page be amended to indicate at the beginning of the survey that it is being conducted on behalf of council.
Privacy protection
.id will only ever analyse and report responses in conjunction with every other response. It provides an aggregated result back to council. Council does not have access to the original survey response from an individual respondent.