For the first time, the Young Professionals of Odessa Quality of Life Survey included people from Ector County, along with City of Odessa residents.
Conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, 400 registered voters were interviewed by phone from Sept. 21-28, 2023. Those interviewed were selected at random from commercially available Texas State voter registration files. The resulting sample reflects the demographic profile of registered voters in Ector County.
“The margin for error, according to standards customarily used by statisticians, is no more than plus or minus 5 percentage points. This means that there is a 95 percent probability that the ‘true’ figure would fall within that range if the entire population were sampled. The margin for error is higher for any subgroup, such as gender, income or race,” Mason-Dixon said in the survey.
YPO Chair Julie Prentice, who ran unopposed for Ector County attorney, said out of those polled, 69 percent were from the city and 31 percent from the county.
They included county residents because some leaders wanted more information about the county.
Vice Chair Morgan Chelette said results don’t change that much from year to year, so instead of conducting the survey every year they may do it every couple of years unless they get some funding for it.
Board Secretary Ramiro Salinas said they are more than happy to share the information with anybody who wants it.
“We will go present pretty much anywhere. We’re doing this for the community; not just for our organization,” Salinas said.
Rating the overall quality of life, 45 percent said it was good and 8 percent excellent for a total of 53 percent positive.
On the negative side, 34 percent said it was just fair and 13 percent said it was poor for a total of 47 percent negative.
“One thing I found interesting, especially I think because the ECISD bond just passed, was that education shot up to one of the most important issues facing Ector County this year. Crime and economy both kind of stayed where they were but followed suit of going up one and then traffic and immigration dropped a little bit lower this year,” Prentice said.
She added that the organization was surprised that immigration declined and education jumped up.
Jacqueline Saucedo, marketing liaison, said the question about whether the county was heading in the right direction stuck out to her.
“It kind of was split,” Saucedo said.
The survey shows 41 percent of those surveyed said the county is on the right track and 40 percent said it was on the wrong track. Nineteen (19) percent said they were not sure.
The top five most important issues for 2023 were education at 19 percent; crime, 16 percent; 13 percent economy/jobs; traffic/roads, 11 percent; and 7 percent immigration.
The question of how concerned people are about the security and future of their own job or the jobs of any close family members in Ector County were 50 percent (overall) positive with 20 percent not too concerned and 30 percent not at all concerned.
Twenty-one (21) percent were very concerned and 28 percent were somewhat concerned for a total of 49 percent.
Economic conditions in Ector County got a total positive rating of 55 percent (46 percent good and 9 percent excellent).
Thirty-one (31) percent said economic conditions were just fair and 14 percent poor for a total of 45 percent negative.
Over the next five years, 40 percent said it would stay the same, 28 percent said it would get better, 22 percent said worse and 10 percent were not sure.
On job opportunities in your field, in 2023, got a 60 percent total positive rating (38 percent good and 22 percent excellent). In 2022, 43 percent said job opportunities in their field were good and 22 percent excellent for a total of 65 percent positive.
For 2023, 32 percent of people said availability of healthcare was good and 9 percent excellent.
In 2022, 37 percent said it was good and 10 percent excellent.
As for being welcoming to people of diverse ethnicities in 2023, 38 percent said it was good and 9 percent excellent for a total of 47 percent positive. In 2022, 41 percent said the area was good for welcoming people of diverse ethnicities and 14 percent excellent for a total of 55 percent positive.
On a question about out-migration, or leaving the area, in the next five years, a total of 53 percent said they were not too likely to leave and 47 percent said they were somewhat likely or very likely to leave.
Of the 25 percent that said they were likely to leave, the reasons varied:
- Poor economy/job, 27 percent.
- Family reasons/retire, 19 percent.
- Crime, 18 percent.
- Poor schools, 10 percent.
- Cost of living, 9 percent.
- Poor quality of life, 8 percent.
- Not sure, 4 percent.
- Poor leadership, 3 percent.
- Environment and other were 1 percent.
- Lack of culture, less than 1 percent.
