The Age-in-Place survey launched on October 4th, and at its close on October 25th, it had 1,233 responses. Now that doesn’t sound like much but put into context, it’s actually extraordinary. Customer surveys can typically garner 25-30% response rate but these have an “invested” audience…they have made a purchase or had a service so have a desire to give feedback. Other surveys, not prompted by a purchase or service, can have a 5-25% rate. According to St. Norbert College Strategic Research Institute, however, community surveys have a much lower response rate, typically 2-3%.

So 1,233 responses, was that really so good? If you go by census data of Door County, approximately 28,000, then we got almost 4.5%. But census data is not a picture of people actually living in the community. We sent a postcard to every household in Door County. The postoffice calls this a EDDM, Every Door Direct Mailing. After the mailing house audited the list, removing duplicates and incomplete addresses, the total mailed poscards was just under 18,000. That would give it a 6.5% response rate. We’ll take it!

So here’s some quick stats from the survey:

• 91% were over age 50.
• 60% have lived in Door County for more than 15 years.
• 24% live alone.
• 71% of the survey takers were women.
• 86% said they wanted to stay in their homes as the age.

In addition to the answers to the questions, survey takers were able to put in comments to 4 questions plus a question that simply asked “What services should be offered in Door County to help residents age in place?”. From these, we have pages and pages of responses. It’s exciting! And a little daunting, tying them in with the questions and organizing them to usefully share with the results. We are working hard on it and looking forward to sharing all the good stuff about how Door County residents want to AGE-IN-PLACE.

So come see us at one of the following locations to hear more. All locations have two options, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Sturgeon Bay, ADRC Community Center – November 8th

Sister Bay Liberty Grove Fire Department – November 9th

Forestville Town Hall – November 10th

Bailey Harbor Town Hall – November 14th

Washington Island, Trinity Lutheran Church Fellowship Hall – November 15th

Sevastopol Town Hall – November 16th

Egg Harbor, Donald and Carol Kress Pavilion – November 17th