Survey on Citizens’ Satisfaction with Quality of Life in Local Communities and the Services of Local Self-Governments Presented
This is one of the findings of the Survey on Citizens’ Satisfaction with Quality of Life in Their Local Communities and the Services of Their Local Self-Governments, which the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) conducted on a representative sample of 11,461 adult citizens in 501 towns and municipalities across Serbia within the Programme “PRO – Local Governance for People and Nature”.
The citizens’ satisfaction with the quality of life in their local communities increased since the previous survey cycle. Namely, the share of respondents, who assessed their quality of life as good, increased from 25% in 2019 to 33% in 2024. The share of citizens, who assessed their quality of life as average, remained approximately the same, while the share of those who assessed their quality of life as tolerable fell by two percent.
The citizens were satisfied the most by the availability of shops (69%), the state of the green markets, the quality of educational institutions, the availability of sports and recreational facilities and safety. However, 45% of the respondents said that they were dissatisfied by the lack of parking, while slightly fewer of them were dissatisfied with the state of urbanism, equal exercise of rights and youth policies.
Seventy-two percent of the respondents availed themselves of the services of local self-governments over the past two years. They were the most satisfied with the work of the general administration services. The share of citizens who used e-Services, such as e-Administration, e-Agrar, e-Taxes and e-Cadastre, increased and now stands at 21%.
According to the survey results, as many as 73% of the citizens think that they should be more involved in decisions affecting their lives in their street or neighbourhood, while more than half of the respondents would like to be better informed of the events in their city or municipality and on the spending of public funds. The citizens’ satisfaction with the efficiency of the local self-governments slightly decreased over 2019 – one out of five respondents think that they need more time to get things done in the city/municipal hall than before.
Trust in local institutions remains low. On the other hand, one out of five respondents think that the staff in their local self-governments are expert and professional. The number of citizens who think the public officials are courteous has also increased.
As per civil society organisations, most respondents (42%) are unfamiliar with their work and say that they have never availed themselves of their services.
The respondents mainly inform themselves about the work of their local self-governments via local TV stations (41%) and Internet portals (38%). Most citizens think that they are sufficiently informed of the work of the local authorities.
A detailed analysis of the survey results and their summary are available on Programme PRO’s website.
The survey results were presented regionally, in Kraljevo, Leskovac, Zaječar and Šabac in the 13-21 June period.
The public opinion survey was conducted within the Programme “PRO– Local Government for People and Nature”, which is jointly implemented by the following United Nations agencies in Serbia - UNOPS, UNICEF, UNFPA and UNEP, in cooperation with the Government of the Republic of Serbia and with the financial support of the Swiss Government. CeSID is solely responsible for the content of the survey and it does not necessarily reflect the views of the Governments of Switzerland or the Republic of Serbia.
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1 The survey was conducted in the following local self-governments: Apatin, Babušnica, Bajina Bašta, Bela Palanka, Bogatić, Bojnik, Boljevac, Bor, Bosilegrad, Bujanovac, Gornji Milanovac, Jagodina, Knić, Knjaževac, Kragujevac, Kraljevo, Lapovo, Lebane, Leskovac, Loznica, Ljubovija, Mali Zvornik, Malo Crniće, Mionica, Niš, Nova Varoš, Novi Pazar, Pirot, Požega, Priboj, Rača, Raška, Ražanj, Sjenica, Smederevo, Sokobanja, Sombor, Svilajnac, Šabac, Topola, Trgovište, Trstenik, Ub, Užice, Velika Plana, Veliko Gradište, Vladičin Han, Vlasotince, Vrnjačka Banja and Zaječar.