DOI: 10.3886/icpsr02170.v2
title: Washington Post Prince William County [Virginia] Poll, January 1997
title: Version 2

description: This special topic poll, conducted January 9-12, 1997,
solicited responses from Virginia residents of Prince William County
and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park on a range of community
and quality of life issues specific to their locale. Respondents were
asked to rate Prince William County as a place to live, and commented
on past, current, and future trends in their quality of life. Those
polled identified the most important problem facing Prince William
County, whether they would like to live in Prince William County in
five years, and whether they would move if housing was not less
expensive there relative to other areas around Washington. Respondents
were asked to assess the treatment of residents of the east and west
sides of the county by government officials, how well their local
government was providing public services, as well as the availability
of cultural activities, entertainment, and retail stores and
restaurants in Prince William County. Residents were also asked for
their opinion on problems facing their local public schools, such as
overcrowding, gang violence, and poor school facilities, and whether
they would be willing to sacrifice city services or pay more taxes to
provide more money to public schools. Other topics covered the growth
rate in Prince William County, and whether limits should be placed on
residential and commercial development. Additional questions asked
respondents how long they had lived in the Prince William County area,
the location of their previous residence, and whether they had any
children living in and attending school in Prince William
County. Demographic variables include sex, age, race, education level,
marital status, political party affiliation, and household income.
description: The data contain a weight variable (WEIGHT) that should be
 used in analyzing the data. This poll consists of "standard" national
 representative samples of the adult population with sample balancing
of sex, race, age, and education.
description: Households were selected by random-digit dialing. Within
 households, the respondent selected was the adult living in the
 household who last had a birthday and who was home at the time of the
interview.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Washington Post Prince William County [Virginia] Poll, January 1997
description: Persons aged 18 and over living in households with
telephones in Prince William County and the cities of Manassas and
Manassas Park, Virginia.
description: telephone interviewThe data available for download are not weighted,
and users will need to weight the data prior to analysis.Additional information about sampling, interviewing, and sampling
error may be found in the codebook.Original reports using these
data may be found via the
Washington
Post Opinion Surveys and Polls Web site.The meaning of the
variable SELECTB is unknown and may be associated with the sampling
method of selecting a respondent based on the adult living in the
household who last had a birthday.According to the data
collection instrument, code 3 in the variable Q909 included
respondents who answered that they had attended a technical school.To protect respondent confidentiality, zip codes in variable Q44
were blanked, and respondent names were removed from the public use
data file.Value labels for unknown codes were added in variables
AGE, Q4, and Q43.The CASEID variable was created for use with
online analysis.