Meredith Hector is Knight's program director in Bradenton.

It turns out that the worst economic crisis in decades is not a key factor in residents' passion and loyalty for their community.

The Soul of the Community study also found that of the 26 communities surveyed, residents of the Bradenton area (the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice metropolitan statistical area) were the most emotionally attached to their community.

What does the economy have to do with our love of where we live? The study explores what community qualities influence residents’ passion for the place they call home. It then tries to understand how those feelings relate to indicators of community well-being such as local economic growth. In the Bradenton area the relationship between community attachment and GDP growth has increased since last year and is strong and significant (correlation =.431).

There are three main factors that bind residents to the Bradenton area: social offerings (opportunities and the environment to meet others), openness (how welcoming a place is) and aesthetics (the perceived beauty of the place).

Perhaps not surprisingly, the most attached residents are most likely to be older, long-term, retired and higher educated. The least likely to be attached are younger, single and non-employed (includes students, laid off) residents. There was a significant increase of community attachment for many demographic groups from year 1 to year two including older, higher educated, new and high income residents.

It’s great that overall residents of this region are so engaged but it seems we should analyze and document reasons for the improved ratings of important drivers and for increased attachment in key demographic groups. Perhaps we can look at ways to improve job satisfaction, engage new residents. Or maybe we can focus on welcomeness for college grads.

There’s plenty to learn and explore in this very rich data set. We’ll be starting an online conversation here so please click around, explore website, and feel free to post your comments here. If a virtual conversation isn’t enough I’d also encourage you to join us for a terrific discussion about the survey results and their implications for our community with Dr. Katherine Loflin at 5 p.m. Oct. 8 at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee Selby Auditorium. Those interesting in attending should register by visiting www.sarasota.usf.edu/ippl or calling the event hotline at 941-359-4602. But let’s think collectively about what we might we do as a community to ensure this area is an attractive and vibrant destination where all of its residents want to live, work, visit and play.