As in the first inquiry, the survey identified 36 specific areas or conditions (e.g. water, sewage, garbage), under 10 broad headings (e.g. pubic utilities), and for each asked the administrators whether this condition constituted a major urgent problem, a serious problem, a minor problem, or if the condition were satisfactory or even an advantage for the city. With this five part code, each condition was scored 1 for urgent and major problem to 5, an advantageous condition for the city. That is, the score is a positive one, the better the condition the higher the score; a low score thus indicates more of a problem.

We can first examine the broad general pattern of problem scores by showing the overall mean scores for the 10 categories and their 36 specific elements. These are set out in table 17. For much of the analysis, we can use the scores of the 10 summary categories of problems. We have examined these statistically and find that for the most part the summary scores adequately represent the scores of the individual items. That is, in each summary score there is only one major factor, to which all of the individual items contribute roughly equally. There are, however, a few conditions, including housing, some aspects of crime and some aspects of employment for which it will be useful to examine the individual items. Thus following a discussion of major problem categories in total and by country, we shall turn to these other issues.

Table 17
Numbers of Respondents and Mean Scores*
for Urban Problems: 10 Categories and 36 Constituent Items
(maximum score = 5)