DOI: 10.3886/icpsr35532.v2
title: Soul of the Community [in 26 Knight Foundation Communities in the United States], 2008-2010
title: Version 2

description: Soul of the Community was a three-year study conducted by Gallup, Inc. of the 26 Knight Foundation communities across the United States to determine the factors that attach residents to their communities and the role of community attachment in an area's economic growth and well-being. The study focused on the emotional side of the connection between residents and their communities. A random sample of at least 400 residents, aged 18 years and older, was interviewed in each community each year. In each year, oversampling obtained additional interviews in selected areas. The 2010 study also included 200 interviews among residents aged 18 to 34 in eight resident communities. Once a household within the identified area was reached, Gallup randomly selected one adult within the sampled household. Telephone interviews lasted 15 minutes (approximately 18 minutes in 2009). In 2010, the survey was available in English and Spanish, and both landlines and cell phones were called. Data include demographics, geographic information, ratings of the community, and information about the economy and work, personal wellness, and community involvement.
description: Soul of the Community was a three-year study conducted by Gallup, Inc. of the 26 Knight Foundation communities across the United States to determine the factors that attach residents to their communities and the role of community attachment in an area's economic growth and well-being. The study focused on the emotional side of the connection between residents and their communities.
description: A random sample of at least 400 residents, aged 18 years and older, was interviewed in each community each year. In 2008, oversampling of 1,500 respondents occurred in San Jose, Philadelphia, and Miami. In 2009, roughly 1,500 citizens were interviewed in the three communities of Akron, Charlotte, and Detroit. In 2010, over 1,000 interviews were conducted in each of eight resident communities (Akron, OH; Charlotte, NC; Detroit, MI; Macon, GA; Miami, FL; Philadelphia, PA; San Jose, CA; St. Paul, MN). The 2010 study also included 200 interviews among residents aged 18 to 34 in eight resident communities to give Gallup more information about that age group. Telephone interviews lasted 15 minutes (approximately 18 minutes in 2009). In 2010, the survey was available in English and Spanish, and both landlines and cell phones were called. Five comparison groups, as defined by variable URBAN_GR, were created among the 26 Knight Foundation communities based on their urbanicity (as defined by the US Census) and relative adult population size. The goal of creating groups is for comparisons of cities within groups, rather than across group comparisons.
description: Data include demographics, such as gender, age, years in the community, household information, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, education level, and income range. Data also include geographic information, such as Knight community, county of residence, urban/suburban/rural, and urban group. Respondents also provided ratings of their community and information about the economy and work, personal wellness, and community involvement.
description: For 2008, data were weighted in each community to reflect United States adult population by age, gender, race, and ethnicity. Communities were put into their correct proportion based on total adult population.
For 2009, the survey data were weighted within each community to reflect the known adult population by age, gender, race, and ethnicity based on United States Census data. This type of weighting corrects for over or under representation of population groups (such as minority groups or college age adults) who may be harder to reach or participate less in sample surveys. The data across the Knight Foundation Communities were then weighted by population size to put each community into the correct proportion relative to the other communities.
For 2010, each community survey was weighted to community-specific parameters for age, sex, race, ethnicity (Hispanic/non-Hispanic) and education. These weights correct for non-response and non-coverage to create unbiased, representative results.
Data from the three years have the same two weight variables: CSWEIGHT should be used when analyzing data from one community, comparing results (i.e., means, percentages) across two or more communities, or when conducting inferential statistical tests (i.e., significance testing). PROJWT should be used when analyzing results for a combination or aggregation of two or more communities.
description: Response Rates: Not available.
description: Presence of Common Scales: None.
description: The Random Digit Dialing (RDD) sample for each community was a representative selection of residential household telephone numbers in the defined area. Once a household within the identified area was reached, Gallup randomly selected one adult within the sampled household. In 2009, each county within a community was sampled proportionally to the adult population in each area.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Soul of the Community, 2008
DS2: Soul of the Community, 2009
DS3: Soul of the Community, 2010
description: Adults, at least 18 years of age, living in one of the twenty-six Knight Foundation communities. Smallest Geographic Unit: Knight Foundation community
description: telephone interviewGallup, Inc. conducted the survey on behalf of the Knight Foundation.This data collection was previously distributed by the Cultural Policy and the Arts National Data Archive (CPANDA). The CPANDA Identification Number (study number) for the entire data collection is c00026. The CPANDA Identification number for the Soul of the Community 2008 is a00267, for the Soul of the Community 2009 is a00268, and for the Soul of the Community 2010 is a00269.
CPANDA conducted the following processing steps for release of this collection: produced a codebook, checked for undocumented codes, performed consistency checks, provided frequencies, performed recodes, and reformatted the data.Users are encourage to view the Knight Soul of the Community Web site (soulofthecommunity.org) for findings by community, including publications and maps.In particular, the study in 2008 compared residents' attachment level to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the 26 communities over the past five years. From the 2010 study, researchers analyzed the connection between community attachment and economic growth and found that cities with the highest levels of attachment had the highest rate of GDP growth. Social offerings, openness and beauty are far more important than peoples' perceptions of the economy, jobs or basic services in creating a lasting emotional bond between people and their community.This collection includes Excel files produced by CPANDA, one for each year. These multiple page workbooks replicate the calculation of index variables, such as LOYALTY and PASSION. The first worksheet (a00267, a00268, a00269) is the raw data, while successive worksheets focus on an individual index variable.