How Clean Are American Homes?

More about this little known fact: when the General Social Survey is taken every two years, GSS interviewers who talk to respondents in person are asked to rate respondents and their home and neighborhood on a variety of measures. How clean is their home, and how safe is their neighborhood? How attractive is the respondent, how well groomed, and how healthy? The answers to these questions can reveal interviewer bias and, over time, perhaps changes in the health and wellbeing of the public. Here is what GSS interviewers thought about the cleanliness of the homes of Americans (the nationally representative sample of respondents to the GSS) in 2016...

How clean was the interior of the housing unit?
32.4% very clean
44.4% clean
15.0% so-so
  5.3% not very clean
  2.8% dirty

Opinions on cleanliness vary by age of respondent. The homes of younger respondents are perceived to be less spotless than the homes of their older counterparts. Among interviewers whose respondent was aged 18 to 29, only 23 percent reported that the respondent's home was very clean. Among interviewers whose respondent was aged 65 or older, a larger 46 percent reported that the respondent had a very clean home.

Source: Demo Memo analysis of the 2016 General Social Survey