Neighbourhood factors influencing people's desire to live in a certain place

Understanding the link between objective and subjective access to neighbourhood factors and neighbourhood satisfaction can aid in defining measures to enhance social sustainability.

Background:
National planning expectations emphasize the need for socially sustainable community development, with a focus on creating safe and inclusive places that meet residents' needs and contribute to high wellbeing so that people want to live there now and in the future. Numerous indicators for assessing neighbourhood factors of importance for social sustainability have been suggested. However, few studies explore the alignment between the proposed objective and subjective indicators and their predictive value for residents' desire to live in a certain place. This study compared subjective and objective indicators of access to nature, pedestrian/cycling paths, and public transportation, and examined their relationship with residents' satisfaction with the neighbourhood as a place to live.

Method:
This cross-sectional study used data from 108 738 inhabitants participating in the County Public Health Survey in Viken in 2021. Survey questions capturing perceived access to nature, public transportation, and pedestrian/cycling paths were used as subjective indicators. An outcome measure was developed from responses on neighbourhood satisfaction and the desire to continue living there. Objective indicators were computed within all postal code areas in Viken using geographical information systems and linked to the survey data. The agreement between objective and subjective indicators was evaluated using Cohen’s Kappa. Linear regression was used to explore associations between the objective and subjective neighbourhood indicators, and satisfaction with the neighborhood as a place to live.

Results:
Residents in Viken perceived their access to nature, pedestrian/cycling paths, and public transportation as good. Cohen's Kappa indicated no agreement between subjective and objective access to nature and public transport, while a low level of agreement was found for pedestrian/cycle paths (K = 0.033). We identified a positive relationship between perceived access to all neighbourhood factors and satisfaction with the neighbourhood as a place to live, now and in the future. Reporting high perceived access to nature was related to a 2.11 (96% CI = 2.03-2.19) higher satisfaction score on average compared to those reporting low access. Of the objective indicators, only access to pedestrian/cycle paths was positively related to neighbourhood satisfaction, but the estimate was weak. Objective access to nature exhibited a weak negative association with satisfaction (B= -0.005, 95% CI= -0.005, -0.004).

Conclusion:
Limited agreement and different patterns of associations were revealed for the objective and subjective indicators. This underscores the importance of utilizing both subjective and objective indicators in social sustainability assessments.