A majority of respondents to the Poll indicated that they and their family are better off this year that they were last year. Modeled after the national consumer confidence index reported by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan since 1952, the local index measures consumer attitudes about their current economic situation and their expectations for the future. The Virginia Center for Urban Development plans to begin tracking the Index of Consumer Sentiment for the Richmond metropolitan area on a quarterly basis. May. Since the recession of the early 1990s, the yearly average for the Index has consistently risen. We should expect these similarities.
Consumers continue to hear good news.
Nationally, we have had 6 straight years of economic growth, inflation is low and unemployment is low. Locally, we continue to attract new businesses with new jobs. The specific questions used to calculate the local index indicate the general optimism of area residents. The sample of telephone numbers was designed so that all residential telephones, including new and unlisted numbers, had a known chance of inclusion. Percentages reported in the text and tables are weighted, while the number of cases shown in the tables for various subgroups is the actual number of respondents.