UCI

Local Public Services

Most Orange County residents are quite satisfied with their local public services: Eight in 10 rate their police protection (83%) and parks and beaches (82%) as excellent or good, while six in 10 give similarly positive ratings to their roads (66%) and public schools (63%). The ratings of these four public services are similar to those given a year ago and higher than they were a decade ago.

South County residents give higher ratings than North County residents to all of their local public services, except schools, which receive similar assessments from residents in both regions. Latinos are considerably more positive than whites about their local schools (72% to 60%), whereas satisfaction with police protection is higher among whites than Latinos (86% to 76%), as is satisfaction with local parks (85% to 80%). Racial/ethnic differences are further emphasized by the substantially higher level of fair to poor ratings given to local police protection by Latinos compared to whites (21% to 11%).

Positive ratings of local parks and police increase with education and income. Interestingly, excellent and good ratings of local public schools decline with higher education and age. Those with public school children (81%) are much more positive about the public schools than those with children not in public school (49%) and those with no children at home (55%).

"How would you rate some of the public services in your local area?"