Naperville residents trying to bike downtown or find affordable housing already know the problem. Now 780 survey respondents have put numbers to it: those are the city's biggest weak spots, even as the community outperforms virtually every comparable city in the country on public safety, parks and quality of life.

Polco, a civic engagement firm, presented the results of its 2026 National Community Survey to the City Council on Tuesday, Aug. 18, according to NCTV17. The firm mailed invitations to 5,000 randomly selected households across all districts between April 6 and June 1, collecting 780 completed responses in English, Spanish and Simplified Chinese. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The headline finding: Naperville scored higher than national benchmarks on 103 of 123 items, similar on the remaining 20 and lower on none. Nick Mastronardi, CEO of Polco, told the council the benchmark group represents "arguably the best performing cities across the country."

Where Naperville shines

Five quality-of-life categories topped 90% satisfaction: safety (94%), parks and recreation (91%), natural environment (91%), economy (90%) and health and wellness (90%). The Naperville Public Library earned the single highest service rating in the survey report at 97%.

Fire services scored 97% excellent or good, ambulance and EMS 93%, and police 89%. Ninety-eight percent of respondents said they feel safe in their neighborhood during the day; 95% feel safe at night, up from 93% in 2023.

Councilwoman Mary Gibson praised the public safety scores at the Aug. 18 meeting, calling them phenomenal and crediting proactive work by police and fire personnel.

Mobility: the widest gap

Mobility rated just 63% excellent or good, the lowest of all categories and 15 points below the importance residents assigned it. Within that category, ease of travel by bicycle dropped 11 points since 2023 to 52%, and bus or train services fell 10 points to 63%. Traffic flow on major streets scored 53%.

"It strikes me that bicycle travel is one that we could catch up to communities on … in particular, just focusing on the fact that it's just so hard to get downtown with a bicycle," Councilman Ian Holzhauer said at the meeting.

Affordability stays stubbornly low

Housing affordability scored 31% excellent or good, the lowest single item in the entire survey. Cost of living came in at 37%. Affordable quality childcare and preschool dropped 11 points from 2023 to 61%. Despite those numbers, four of six affordability items still land above the national benchmark.

Councilman Josh McBroom suggested future surveys ask residents which solutions they would support, such as apartment development or higher-density housing, rather than only measuring dissatisfaction.

Biggest swings since 2023

Employment opportunities satisfaction plunged 24 points, from 84% to 60%, the largest single decline. Economic development fell 13 points to 72%. Mastronardi noted the drops mirror national trends, telling the council that while Naperville did decline, most of the country is going down in those areas as well.

On the positive side, the city's ability to attract people from diverse backgrounds rose from 75% to 81%, overall respondent health climbed 9 points to 81%, and downtown parking satisfaction improved to 60%.

Residents push for action

Marilyn Schweitzer urged the council not to rest on the strong overall scores, saying there are areas that warrant attention in the coming years and that the 22 downward trends are significant as the community continues to distance itself from pandemic effects.

Resident John Doyle criticized the survey's environmental sustainability question as a flawed "double-barreled" design that tries to capture both importance and cost tolerance in a single prompt, calling it a departure from standard methodology.

The full report is available through the city's Legistar portal. No ward-level breakdown of results has been published; residents can request one through the city's FOIA portal at naperville.il.us.