Life in Christchurch still good despite pandemic

A survey of Christchurch residents has provided a snapshot of how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected people’s sense of wellbeing.

The Life in Christchurch Neighbourhoods and Communities 2020 survey is part of a series of surveys that Christchurch City Council does each year to gauge people’s views on what it is like to live in the city.

The findings show that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, most people (88 per cent) feel their quality of life has been either good or extremely good in the past 12 months.

However, about a third of people said they had felt lonely or isolated at times and about one-fifth said they felt stressed most of the time, or always, in the past 12 months.

“The relatively high level of people reporting feeling lonely and stressed is not surprising given the COVID-19 lockdown and uncertain times we are in,’’ says Council Monitoring and Research Team Leader Kath Jamieson.

“Last year was the first time that we asked people about their wellbeing so we don’t have a point of comparison, but we do intend to make wellbeing questions a regular part of the survey,’’ Ms Jamieson says.

More than 3300 people took part in the survey.

The full findings can be found at the survey webpage.