Survey shows greater satisfaction with Kern County’s quality of life

Kern County hasn’t looked or felt this good in years, according to a new survey pointing to significantly greater satisfaction with the local quality of life and a solid reversal of what had been a trend of worsening outlooks.

A summary released Thursday of the Kern Council of Governments’ annual community survey indicated two-thirds of 1,227 residents surveyed earlier this year reported being at least somewhat satisfied with the county’s quality of life. That’s a jump of more than 10 percentage points, year over year, and the most positive showing since 2019.

The numbers suggest an easing of attitudes toward residents’ least-liked features of life in Kern as respondents moderated their views on homelessness, crime and air quality. They were more upbeat this year about the county’s small-town atmosphere and sense of community, though noticeably less enthusiastic about the local cost of living.

Kern COG Chairman Bob Smith attributed the improvements to reductions in crime and “a lot of positive things happening in the city.”

“I would like to say it’s because we’re doing such a good job,” the Bakersfield city councilman and real estate developer said.

“We are improving the quality of life in Bakersfield,” he added. “We’ve got water in the river and we are addressing homelessness much better than ... L.A. and Fresno.”

Based on a report by Godbe Research, the Burlingame-based firm that also did last year’s survey, the 2024 results arrest a seven-year decline in positive assessments, with the exception of 2022’s short-lived uptick in local perceptions.

This year’s summary found the 21.6% of respondents who indicated this year they were “very satisfied” was the highest share since 2018. Meanwhile, the percentage who stated they were “very dissatisfied” — 12.4% — was the lowest reported since 2020.

Godbe drilled deeply, reporting the age group with the most satisfaction, and least dissatisfaction, was that of residents 85 years and older. The group on the opposite end was people between 55 and 59 years of age.

The ethnic group registering the greatest satisfaction was Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders; least satisfied were people of more than one race.

Geographically, the highest satisfaction was found in western Kern, and the lowest was identified in the county’s central region.

When the survey asked people’s outlook on the county’s future quality of life, more than a third (35.2%) answered they expected at least some improvement. That was the most positive result since 2017.

Last year, 7.8 percentage points fewer — only 27.4% — expected the future quality of life would be at least somewhat better. The lowest reading on record locally was 2021’s 26.9%, which followed yearly decreases dating to 2017.

Respondents were most likely to cite Kern’s small-town atmosphere, location, cost of living and sense of community, in that order, as the county’s most-liked attributes. While the small-town aspect increased in likability from 2023, rising 4.8 points to reach 41.5%, cost of living retreated 9.7 points to settle at 27.7%.

Homelessness, crime and air quality, in that order, ranked highest in the county’s least-liked features, according to Thursday’s survey report.

Notably, however, all three were found to have declined significantly during the past year. Homelessness as a negative perception dropped 7.3 points to land at 48.2%, crime fell 10.1 points to hit 41.1% and air quality was down 8 points at 35.6%.

The survey results can be found online at https://www. kerncog.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/community_survey_2024.pdf.