Statistical Analysis of Urban Quality of Life (Case Study: Hawassa Town, SNNP Region, Ethiopia)

Abstract

The study on Quality of life in the cities of both developing and developed countries is gaining interest from a variety of disciplines and is becoming an important tool for policy evaluation, rating of cities, urban planning and management. Cities are the center of economy, politics, commerce and other activities, so it is necessary to analyze the conditions that contribute to the quality of urban life. This study is on urban quality of life of the residents in Hawassa city and its main purpose is to identify the factors that may affect the quality of life of Hawassa residents. For the study a cross sectional data from 570 heads of household which were selected based on stratified random sampling by making the seven sub cities in Hawassa as stratum was collected. Statistical methods such as descriptive statistics, factor analysis and binary logistic regression are used to analyze the data in the study. The principal component analysis revealed that six factors (dimensions) of quality of life were extracted from twenty subjective attributes and all of the factor scores are positively and significantly related to quality of life. Factor analysis also extracts six factors using fifteen objective attributes. Housing, length of residence, economic status, distance from educational center and religious place all have statistically significant impact on people’s quality of life in Hawassa. But access to public service is not significant predictor of quality of life of the residents in Hawassa. Housing, economic condition, environment, neighborhood safety and security, social connectedness and quality of public service are identified as dimensions of subjective quality of life of the residents in Hawassa. The paper also conclude that socio-economic affairs, access to public service, access to education, housing, access to religious place and length of residency are found to be the dimensions of the objective quality of life of the residents in Hawassa. Keywords: