Quality of Life Index
The Thurston Chamber of Commerce is pleased to release our third annual Quality of Life Index, and while residents once again gave Thurston County a C+ as a place to live, the real story lies beneath the grade.
For the last three years, 500 residents, selected at random from a list of registered voters in the county, were interviewed by telephone and online in June. Survey respondents were asked to assess various aspects of life in Thurston County by giving letter grades “like they do in school.”
The composite “grade point average” (GPA) for 9 local government services declined to 2.09 from 2.26 last year. In addition, the composite GPA for “community attributes” declined to 1.89 from 2.12 in 2025 but was equal to the 2024 grade. Most alarming - the grade for “business climate” dropped from 2.17 to 1.81 this year. The .36 decline was the largest of any of the 20 categories we surveyed after holding steady over the last two years.
Thurston County residents continue to value the quality of life here, with six in 10 respondents grading it as an excellent or good place to live. But the outlook for the near-term future declined for the second straight year, and this year, more sharply. Majorities thought that “things will get worse” over the next year for the county and their community. And less than a majority thought things will get better for their household. This was the first time that positive expectations for households were below 60%. It is disappointing to see that the percentage expecting things to get worse for their household has increased from 18% to 44% over the last two years.
Financial hardship appears widespread in Thurston County with three in four respondents (74%) reporting that recent price increases have caused financial hardship for them or their household, including 23% who reported “severe” hardship that affects their standard of living. This is substantially higher than a nation-wide Gallup poll using the same question and conducted in April. Respondents experiencing “severe” financial hardship rated nearly every measure in this survey lower than those not experiencing hardship.
Affordability & homelessness were named as the “most pressing issue” facing the county for the third straight year. Asked in an open-ended question what respondents thought was Thurston County’s “most pressing issue,” respondents named the same 4 issues at the top of the list every year since 2024: Affordability, Homelessness, Crime and Taxes. The percentage naming affordability has grown every year to 34% this year.
The Quality of Life survey was designed, administered, and analyzed by Elway Research. It is a resource for the community, helping to drive and frame discussions and debates. The year-to-year changes in survey results provide a measure of our progress. This helps hold us accountable for achieving the community we aspire to become. Please take a deeper dive and review the 2026 results.