Survey Finds PWC Residents Overall Satisfied; Crime, Data Center Concerns Raised

PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA — The 2024 Community Survey presented to the Board of County Supervisors found a majority of residents are content with the quality of life and services in Prince William County, but the most common concern was crime and safety.

The survey, sent to a sample of 6,000 households to complete from May 10 to July 14 before open participation, generated 2,269 responses. According to the results, eight in 10 respondents rated the quality of life in Prince William County as excellent or good, while seven in 10 rated county services the same. However, five in 10 rated the value of services for taxes paid as excellent or good.

"These surveys provide valuable insights into the needs and challenges of our community and empowers residents to play an active role in shaping their future," said County Executive Chris Shorter. "The results are used to guide strategic decisions and help to align our strategic plan outcomes with the direct input from our residents as to what they want in our community. We remain committed to addressing areas for improvement and building on this strong foundation to ensure our county continues to be a place where individuals, families and businesses want to locate."

For those that rated the quality of life as fair or poor, crime was the most top reason for 27 percent. Taxes followed with 13 percent of these respondents, data centers with 11 percent and traffic, poor leadership/politics, and community services each with 9 percent.

When asked what could improve the quality of life, the top response was safety and security with 17 percent, followed by transportation and limiting data centers with 9 percent and reducing traffic with 7 percent.

Overall, 76 percent said they felt safe in their neighborhoods, down from 80 percent in the 2021 survey. However, 71 percent said they felt safe in commercial areas, which is up from 68 percent in the last survey. The county noted that was a slight decrease from the last survey.

Results were also broken up by geographical regions. The highest quality of life ratings by region were 85 percent in Old Bridge (Lake Ridge-Occoquan area west of I-95) and 83 percent in Dale (Dale City area west of I-95). The lowest ratings were 74 percent in Hoadly (mid-county) and 75 percent in Belmont/Potomac (Woodbridge east of I-95) and Battlefield (large portion of western county). Forest Park (large portion of south county) had a 77 percent quality of life rating.

The survey, done by Prince William County since 1993, asked residents to rate quality of life as well as key areas like government operations, performance and innovation, mobility, economic growth and resiliency, health, wellbeing and environmental sustainability, and safe and secure community.