Participants were invited to select up to seven aspects from a list of factors pertaining to their living environment and rank them based on personal importance. The following aspects received the highest overall score (i.e. they were most frequently selected as one of the seven most important factors and also received a higher rating within the seven factors): access to public transport, local supply and shopping facilities, and neighbourhood and social environment.

The majority of participants state that they hold a driving licence (77%). In addition, 46.8% say they always have access to a car (sometimes: 11.9%; never: 13.8%) and xx% have at least one car in their household. In contrast, only a small proportion of respondents (14%) are members of a car sharing provider.

In terms of transport use, car use in the Mirke Neighbourhood is relatively balanced: While 48% of respondents said they used their car daily or several times a week, the same proportion said they rarely or never used a car. Car sharing was not used by the majority (73%). Public transport was used frequently (daily or several times a week) by 38% of the participants at the time of the survey. However, a large proportion of respondents also stated that they rarely (35.4%) or never (21.3%) use public transport. Walking, on the other hand, was much more common: Around 81% stated in the survey that they covered distances exclusively on foot every day or several times a week.

A comparison with the time before the coronavirus pandemic (i.e., before March 2020) shows that at the time of the survey significantly more trips were made on foot and by car and slightly more trips were made by bicycle. In contrast, there was a sharp decrease in the use of public transport.

A distinct majority of respondents stated that they currently live in a rented flat (80.9%) and less frequently in an owner-occupied flat (16.5%). The average number of rooms is 2.8 rooms and the average living space per person is 47.1 m².

Most of the participants live alone (40.2%) or with another household member (37.8%). Significantly fewer live with (more than) two other people (18.7%). In most cases, the other household member is the respective partner (34.8%) and/or children (11.7%). A further 8.9% live in a traditional flat share and another 2.25% with other relatives.

Most respondents are (very) satisfied with their housing situation (76.5%) or have a neutral attitude in this regard (18.4%). Only a very small proportion said they were (very) dissatisfied with their housing situation (4%). The majority of participants felt that the size of the flat was “just right” (55.7%) or, as another proportion of participants felt, “rather/much too small” (30.8%). A minority of the participants felt that the size of their apartment was a little or much too large (11.4%).

About half of the respondents (42.3%) had no plans to move at the time of the survey. Another 27.9% had no concrete plans to move and 8.1% had concrete plans. Regarding their housing preferences, a clear majority wanted to stay in their current flat (43.4%), in the Mirke (15%), or in Wuppertal (8.7%). Only a few participants said they would like to move to a city of the same size (0.3%), a larger (2.2%) or smaller city (2.4%) or to the countryside (5.4%).

Next, the respondents were asked to imagine that they were to move house now: What factors would be most important for them when choosing their living space? The participants were invited to choose up to seven factors from a list and to rank them based on their personal importance. This showed that a suitable flat size, a balcony/terrace and a good community in the building were most important to the participants when choosing their living space. A guest room and accessibility, on the other hand, were of particular importance only to very few participants.

The coronavirus pandemic did not lead to any significant changes in the areas of neighbourhood, housing, and mobility for a large proportion of the participants (40%, 47.8% and 50.1% respectively). In the areas of neighbourhood, housing, and work, changes were perceived as rather/very positive by about a quarter of the respondents (26.8%, 22.5% and 28.4%). In the areas of mobility, leisure & recreation, and shopping & consumer behaviour, on the other hand, results were mixed (mobility: rather/strongly negative: 15.9%, rather/strongly positive: 15.6%; leisure & recreation: rather/strongly negative: 31.9%, rather/strongly positive: 26.7%; shopping & consumer behaviour: rather/strongly negative: 16.2%, rather/strongly positive: 22%).

Due to the new working situations that have arisen in many places as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, home office was also examined in the first round of the survey. This showed that 30.6% of the participants could in principle also carry out their work fully or partially from home, but for a further 22.9% this is not an option (46.6% missing data). Of the participants who were already working from home at the time of the survey, 17.5% stated that they currently spend 75-100% of their working time at home. A 50% rule would, however, be ideal for most in this respect.

Environmental awareness is generally (very) high among respondents in the Mirke Neighbourhood (80.4%). About half (55.6%) would also welcome a refurbishment of their living space. Most of the respondents (66.1%) also (strongly) agreed with the statement that a climate-neutral building stock is important to achieve the national climate goals. In contrast, a reduction in the size of one’s own living space is perceived by most as less important for climate protection: 28.5% agreed rather/fully that living space sufficiency makes an important contribution to climate protection. At the same time, 32.3% (strongly) disagreed with this statement.

The survey participants were asked about their current marital status. A large majority stated that they were currently single (66.1%) or in a marriage or registered civil partnership (21.2%). Only a small proportion of participants are currently divorced (5.7%) or widowed (2.1%).

Most participants have either a university education (tertiary level; 43.5%) or an (upper) secondary education (43.5%). Only a few of the respondents stated that they had a primary or lower secondary degree (7.4%).

Most respondents are also employed (58.6%); a smaller proportion reported being in education or training (15.9%), retired (12.7%) or not employed (7%) at the time of the survey.

As part of the survey, the financial situation and self-assessment of the household’s economic situation was also considered in more detail. The monthly net household income of most respondents is between 2000€ and 4000€ (38.6%) or between 1000€ and 2000€ (22.4%) – as shown in the graph below. 68.9% of the participants also assess the current economic situation of their household as (very) good (compared to 5.9% as ‘(very) bad’ and 18.4% as ‘partly good, partly bad’). When looking ahead to the economic situation of the household in a year’s time, however, this proportion is reduced (good/very good: 30.5%; partly good, partly bad: 53.4%; bad/very bad: 6.8%).

Most respondents have lived in Wuppertal for more than twenty years (52.4%). Only a few (11.4%) have lived in the city for two years or less. For the Mirke Neighbourhood, the picture differs: 21.4% of participants have lived in the neighbourhood for more than 20 years; at the same time, a larger proportion has lived here for less than two years (26%). A similar distribution as in the Mirke emerges for the length of residence in the current flat/house.