Non-Farm Rural Ontario Residents' Perceived Quality of Life

This paper presents a study of Ontario non-farm rural residents' perceived quality of life. The research sought to understand residents' perceived quality of life both in absolute and relative terms. Measurement focused on indicators of satisfaction with personal life, community and environment and quality of life in comparison to others. A pre-tested questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of non-farm rural residents in Brock and Uxbridge Townships, which lie within one hour's drive northeast of metropolitan Toronto. Nearly forty-two (41.8) percent of the residents returned completed questionnaires. The majority of respondents indicated they were satisfied with most aspects of the quality of their lives. The demographic characteristics that were consistently found to have significant associations with indicators of absolute quality of life and relative quality of life were income, length of residency, presence or number of children in the home and township. Other demographic characteristics almost as consistently found to be significantly associated with indicators of absolute and relative quality of life were gender, followed by age, marital status, amount of land surrounding the home and education. Comparing objectively-based demographic characteristics and more subjectively derived indicators of absolute and relative quality of life provided a useful way of understanding quality of life perceptions of Ontario rural non-farm residents.