Happiness Survey

If You Were Selected

The City encourages all selected households to participate, including new Somerville residents. Please have only one household member fill out the survey.

Surveys are available in Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Nepali, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese. Residents who received the survey and need translation assistance can contact 311 (617-666-3311) or the SomerViva Office of Immigrant Affairs at somerviva@somervillema.gov.

Participation is voluntary and anonymous. Demographic information will only be used to make broad comparisons and ensure the survey results represent our community.

Results will be shared with the community later this year.

If you have questions about the survey, please contact 311 via phone at 617-666-3311 or email at 311requests@somervillema.gov.

Past Surveys and Results

Surveys, data, and visualizations from 2011 to 2023 are available on Somerville’s  Open Data Portal.  

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Survey History

Every two years, the City runs the Somerville Happiness Survey to better understand our community’s happiness and satisfaction with City services. The Happiness Survey covers a range of topics, from neighborhood street design to education opportunities, gathering valuable insight into residents’ needs and preferences.  

SomerStat has conducted the Happiness Survey since 2011. Inspired by efforts in the United Kingdom and Bhutan, Somerville was the first municipality in the United States to survey its residents on happiness and wellbeing.

The Happiness Survey helps decision-makers create effective policies and allocate resources. The 2011 survey, for example, pointed to improving the city’s tree canopy to support residents’ wellbeing, while the 2023 survey told us that new civic engagement opportunities like Participatory Budgeting need more widespread communication. Hearing directly from residents also adds nuance to our existing measures; while most Somerville residents live near a grocery store, differences in grocery store preferences mean that even the closest residents may be unsatisfied with their access.

Because the Happiness Survey is repeated every two years, we’re able to track sentiment over time and see the effects of real-world changes. For example, the absence of street fairs and festivals during the pandemic in 2020 showed us how important these community events are to residents’ satisfaction and feelings of belonging in Somerville.  

We select participants for the Happiness Survey randomly, so we can hear the perspectives of our entire community. This allows us to hear from everyone, including people who can’t or don’t ordinarily provide feedback through other means, such as attending City Council meetings or directly contacting 311. It’s especially useful to hear from people who experience barriers to providing feedback, such as non-English speakers, busy parents, and new residents. 

If You Weren't Selected

We are delighted by your enthusiasm and we are so grateful that you want to participate! We don’t allow people to volunteer to participate in the Happiness Survey because our survey design requires us to select participants randomly. This ensures that the survey is representative of all Somerville residents, including people who don’t ordinarily give feedback.  

However, there are many other ways to get involved and make your voice heard in Somerville! Please feel free to contact us at any time, attend an upcoming meeting or event, or find another way to be Somerville!