Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey
Community Highlights for Rochester Metro

[Community Highlights] [Success Stories] [Press Release] [Survey Highlights (PDF)]

Sponsor
Rochester Area Community Foundation

Media Contact :
Jennifer Leonard, President and Executive Director
Deborah Ellwood, Vice President for Community Programs
Phone 716-271-4100
Address 500 East Avenue, Rochester NY 14607
Email address jleonard@racf.org (also dellwood@racf.org)
Web address www.racf.org

Sample size:
988

Survey Area
The Rochester MSA: City of Rochester and the Counties of Monroe, Ontario, Wayne, Livingston, Genesee, and Orleans

Is your survey area urban, suburban, rural? All three.

Population
1,079,073
(City of Rochester and the Six Counties, 1999 US Census Bureau estimate)

Ethnicity
White 87.8%
Black 10.0%
Hispanic 3.7%
Asian 1.8%
US Census Bureau 1996 Metropolitan Area Ranking List

Age
0-4 7.7%
5-17 18.2%
18-24 11.3%
25-44 32.5%
45-64 17.9%
65+ 12.4%
US Census Bureau

Additional Information:

The six-county Rochester MSA was selected because it incorporates the full range of community types in the region-from inner city, to suburban, to remote rural. It also represents the area served by the Rochester Area Community Foundation.

Racial minorities comprise only about 20% of the region's population, but RACF elected to over-sample for African American and Hispanic respondents in order to get enough feedback from those groups to be statistically significant.

RACF's ACTION: PROMOTING MORE AND BETTER SOCIAL CAPITAL

1. Spread interest and knowledge of both the concept of social capital and the Rochester results through a Broadcast Town Meeting, to be offered the community through RACF and local public TV WXXI.

2. Engage diverse "Priority Panel" of community leaders to assist RACF with creating an expanded Civic Engagement Grantmaking strategy.

Develop and Issue Civic Engagement Request For Proposals in Spring 2001, with first grant awarded August 2001