Hello Avril

This paper has discussed your topic:

Ham, S. A., Levin, S., Zlot, A. I., Andrews, R. R., & Miles, R. (2004). Ranking of cities according to public health criteria: pitfalls and opportunities. American journal of public health, 94(4), 546-549.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amy_Zlot/publication/8647219_Ranking_of_cities_according_to_public_health_criteria_Pitfalls_and_opportunities/links/5588405708ae347f9bda91d3.pdf

This site might be of interest, but the QoL section does not use census data:

http://www.nlc.org/build-skills-and-networks/resources/cities-101/city-factoids/city-rankings

This does not use census data, but might be worth looking at:

McCann, E. J. (2004). 'Best places': Interurban competition, quality of life and popular media discourse. Urban Studies, 41(10), 1909-1929.

http://www.sfu.ca/~emccann/BestPlaces%20UrbanStudies.pdf

This paper is old, but might be of interest:

Kahn, M. E. (1995). A revealed preference approach to ranking city quality of life. Journal of Urban Economics, 38(2), 221-235.

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/inside/working/Econ/ldpd_econ_9293_669.pdf

This is also quite old, but might have some relevance. I have not found the full text:

Rogerson, R. J., Findlay, A. M., Morris, A. S., & Coombes, M. G. (1989). Indicators of quality of life: some methodological issues. Environment and Planning A, 21(12), 1655-1666.

http://epn.sagepub.com/content/21/12/1655.short

Very best wishes,

Mary

Article Ranking of Cities According to Public Health Criteria: Pitfa...

Thank you so much Mary,

Appreciate

Hi Avril, 

It would be of reasonable use to consider some work at a higher level to gauge your understanding within this space. For example, Florida develops a ranking system for his theoretical 'creative class', which may be of interest to you. 

However, in general - I would look at the nature of the QOL framework you are adopting and identify measures for each dimension, and then find some method of aggregating that. For example, Florida uses the distribution of sexuality (e.g. straight/gay/etc.) and ethnic diversity as part of his measure - as he predicts that higher proportions of certain demographic features will increase the number of his creative class. 

If one of your dimensions of QOL is social inclusion, you could evaluate quantifiable data on this at a macro level (e.g. crime rates, percentage of people in prison or with criminal charges) and at a more micro level through questionnaires on things like family safety, estimated number of 'best friends', 'good friends', 'associates', acquaintances', perceived inclusion, etc. 

There may be some methods of measurement on some dimensions of QOL, but it would also require adaption to different towns and cities, so an adaptable scale would be required based on measures such as size - as QOL would be easier to measure in small towns using micro-level, and bigger cities may have more accessible macro data.

Good luck!

Book The Rise of the Creative Class--Revisited: Revised and Expanded

Thank you! It makes more sense now.