Development of a Composite Model of Quality of Life: A Case Study in Austin, Texas

This research examines how quality of life (QOL) may be studied empirically for Austin, Texas by using social, economic, and environmental variables at the census tract level. In addition to common factors examined by previous researchers, this paper examined the inclusion of crime rate and commute time in modeling QOL. The results from factor analysis evaluated six factors related to QOL for the study area, including education and commute time (factor 1), housing and population density (factor 2), property crimes (factor 3), environmental quality (factor 4), some college education (factor 5), and violent crimes (factor 6). Using the percentage of variance for each variable as a weight, a synthesized index was developed to assess QOL in Austin, Texas.