From May 2 – 20, 2025, the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center (OVBC) designed and administered the 2025 Portland: Your City, Your Choice Survey to discover insights related to charter changes, civic life, and quality of life in Portland. OVBC hopes that this research will assist Portlanders with planning, policy making, and communications, and serve as a baseline for future research to monitor changes in Portlanders’ values and beliefs about their city.
INTRODUCTION:
The survey asked a representative sample of people residing in Portland ages 18+ over 70 questions. The research methodology is described more fully at the end of this summary report. Included below for selected questions are noteworthy subgroup variations for gender, race, age, education, income, and district. The question numbers in this document correspond with an accompanying annotated questionnaire and tabs.
Unless otherwise noted, each statement summarizing noticeable differences captures a comparison within an identification category. For example, if respondents aged 75 and older show higher support for a particular statement, this refers to a comparison with other age groups.
Due to rounding, the percentages reported below may not add up to 100% or compare exactly to the percentages for the same question in the annotated questionnaire or crosstabs.
Included below are a series of reports created from the 2025 Portland: Your City, Your Choice survey. Click on the picture to download and view the report you are most interested in:
METHODOLOGY
The online survey consisted of 1,190 Portland residents ages 18+ and took approximately 10-20 minutes to complete. This is a sufficient sample size to assess Portlanders’ opinions generally and to review findings by multiple subgroups. Respondents were contacted by using professionally maintained online panels, email, and community messaging. In gathering responses, a variety of quality control measures were employed, including questionnaire pre-testing, validation, and real-time monitoring of responses.
To ensure a representative sample, demographic quotas were set, and data was weighted by district, gender, age, race, political party, and education. OVBC surveys currently use aggregated data to analyze the opinions of BIPOC residents in comparison to the opinions of residents who identify as white and not another race. BIPOC residents are not a homogeneous population, instead, they represent a wide diversity of races and ethnicities. The findings included in this memo should not be construed such that all people of color are believed to share the same opinions. Disaggregated race data will be provided when sample sizes permit reliability.
Statement of Limitations:: Any sampling of opinions or attitudes is subject to a margin of error. The margin of error is a standard statistical calculation that represents differences between the sample and total population at a confidence interval, or probability, calculated to be 95%. This means that there is a 95% probability that the sample taken for this study would fall within the stated margin of error if compared with the results achieved from surveying the entire population. This survey’s margin of error for the full sample is ±2.84%
For More Information:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Oregon Values and Beliefs Center (OVBC): This research was completed by the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center as a community service. OVBC is an independent and non-partisan organization and an Oregon charitable nonprofit corporation. Representative OVBC projects include a series of in-depth business interviews for the Columbia County Economic Team, as well as an extensive opinion research study about Oregonian’s values and beliefs, in partnership with over 20 organizations (Learn more about the 2023 Typology Study).
North Star Civic Foundation is a Portland-based foundation that fosters collaborative spaces for civic leaders to develop visionary solutions to complex public interest problems. Their generous support is instrumental to this annual research project from thoughtful input on our questionnaire and assistance with civic engagement data collection. North Star’s contribution ensures organizations, officials, and all Portlanders have access to high-quality, valid, and statistically reliable data, building a strong foundation for a better future.