Survey: Suburban Life is the Good Life

According to Sommer Mathis, the Atlantic Media/Siemens State of the City Poll "surveyed a representative sample of over 1,600 U.S. adults on a wide-ranging set of topics related to quality of life and local government policies, found that all things considered, Americans who live in suburban areas are the most satisfied with the places where they live. Among suburbanites, 84 percent of those surveyed rated the communities where they live as overall excellent or good, compared to 75 percent of urban dwellers and 78 percent of rural residents."

Mathis provides a few more details about the poll's findings, and also teases a forthcoming series of stories following the poll "that we believe represents a first-of-its-kind look at the relationship between three broad categories of communities—urban, suburban, and rural—and satisfaction across a broad set of topic areas such as public schools, traffic congestion, and local police departments."