Life in Hampton Roads, Part III: Residents Are Healthy, Schools Less So

September 30, 2015

Eight in 10 residents of Hampton Roads consider themselves to be in good or excellent health, according to statistics released Wednesday by Old Dominion University's Social Science Research Center.

Their opinion, however, of the health of the region's public schools is less robust.

In the research center's sixth annual Life in Hampton Roads survey, confidence in the quality of public schools continued its dip from 2011, with results weighted by city population, race, age, gender and cell phone vs. landline usage.

While 57.3 percent of nearly 900 respondents rated the quality of their public school system good (37.9 percent) or excellent (19.4 percent), that represents a 2.6-percent decline from last year and a 7.1 percent fall since 2011.

In Hampton Roads, Chesapeake schools fared the best at 77.3 percent good-or-excellent, and Virginia Beach was next at 74.7 percent.

Norfolk's public school system drew the lowest good-or-excellent ranking at just 28 percent.

Aside from school quality, the latest Life in Hampton Roads release reveals residents' general health, dental care and frequency of exercise. Additionally, the research center quizzed respondents about tick exposure.

Only 8.8 percent of respondents reported being bitten by a tick in the past 12 months, and 6.2 percent said they had a pet bitten by a tick during that time.

The survey's report on transportation will be released Thursday, and Friday's final report will focus on flooding and sea-level rise.

Full survey reports, including yearly archives, and information on survey methodology can be found at the research center's website.