They’re a little down about the economy and dissatisfied with some municipal services, but overall, Halifax residents are pretty happy with their lot.

Results from the 2012 City Matters survey, conducted for Metro Halifax and the Greater Halifax Partnership by MQO Research, shows overall quality of life gets a mean score of 7.6 out of 10.

“The overall tone is very solid,” said MQO vice-president of research Craig Wight. “Even in conversation, we say that, ‘Oh it’s a great place to raise a family,’ or ‘It’s a great quality of life.’ It goes with the territory.”

The mean scores on 10 questions related to family life, dining, arts and culture and recreation were mostly above seven out of 10, peaking at 8.2 for “educational opportunities.”

Wight says that’s not surprising, given the number of post-secondary institutions in the city.

“If you don’t have educational opportunities in Halifax, where could you possibly go to get more?” he said.

Housing affordability and both indoor and outdoor recreational facilities ranked lowest of the lifestyle questions, with mean scores of 6, 6.9 and 6.8 respectively.

Wight says those “low” scores still aren’t that bad.

“In any city, you could pick things apart in the sense of this and that could be better,” he said. “So there’s tradeoffs all the time and as people consider the good and the bad points here, on balance they’re pretty positive.”

The poll surveyed 603 residents during the first two weeks of September, with a margin of error of plus or minus four per cent.