Middletown, PA - The annual Penn State poll suggests that Pennsylvanians are "more or less" satisfied with the way things are going in Pennsylvania today and remain optimistic about the future for the Commonwealth.

The poll also indicates unemployment is the biggest concern for residents of Pennsylvania.

The annual poll, conducted by Penn State Harrisburg's Center for Survey Research, was completed Dec. 7, 2002 and yielded 823 completed telephone interviews of Pennsylvanians.  These respondents were selected at random from Pennsylvania's 1,933 telephone exchanges, guaranteeing that every telephone household in the state had an equal change of being selected.

In general, results from the Penn State Poll suggest that Pennsylvanians are "more or less" satisfied with the way things are going in Pennsylvania today (71% of respondents), with a majority of respondents (61%) stating that they think "things will go better for Pennsylvanians" over the next year or so.

When asked to identify the most important problem facing Pennsylvania today, 28% of respondents named unemployment, 13% named taxes, and 12% named education.  The remainder of respondents listed such issues as the economy, health care, crime, terrorism, or dissatisfaction with government.

Pennsylvanians rated the national economy as fair or good (71%), with 27% rating the American economy as poor. 

A series of questions in the 2002 Penn State Poll asked specifically about several crime and justice issues.  Only 25% of Pennsylvanians "agreed somewhat" or "strongly agreed" that crime is a major problem in their local neighborhoods, with about one-third (33%) of respondents reporting an increase in crime in their neighborhood within the last year.

When asked about their personal victimization experiences, an overwhelming majority of respondents (84%) responded that they were not the victim of any type of crime for that time period.  Fourteen percent said that they were the victim of crime for the previous year, and 2% of respondents refused to answer that question.  Further questions about victimization experiences revealed that of those who said that they were the victim of a crime in the year about which they were being asked, 67% responded that they were the victim of a property crime, 16% a violent crime, and 17% some "other" type of crime (identify theft, credit card fraud, or harassment by communication).

For additional information about the 2002 Penn State Poll, please contact:
Dr. Barbara Sims
Faculty Director, Center for Survey Research
Penn State Harrisburg
777 West Harrisburg Pike
Middletown, PA 17057
717.948.6044
bas4@psu.edu