The quality of life in a community comes from a wide variety of factors, and in this section of the Westchester Index we report on key areas including voter participation, safety, transportation, and environmental conditions.

For voter registration and participation in elections, Westchester residents’ rates are equal or slightly better than statewide rates, but below rates of comparison counties. In 2022, 85% of Westchester County’s voting-age population was registered to vote and 42% of Westchester County’s eligible voters voted in the midterm elections (which typically attract less participation than presidential election years). While voter registration rates have held fairly steady over time, voter participation rates have modestly increased in Westchester over the last several election cycles.

Westchester’s serious crime rate was below the state and nation, at 113 serious crimes reported per 10,000 residents in 2022. While serious crimes in Westchester County increased slightly from 2021, rates have declined 30% since 2010, greater than the 8% decline statewide over the same period. In 2020, there were 17 victims of domestic violence per 10,000 residents in Westchester County, a 31% decrease from 2012.

The county had a large racial disparity in arrest rates, with arrests of African Americans nearly 7 times as high as that of whites and nearly twice as high as that of Hispanics in 2020. For every 10,000 African Americans in the County, 27 were arrested, compared to rates of 16 for Hispanics and 4 for whites.

There were also disparities in Internet access. African Americans in Westchester County had the lowest percentage of households with Internet access at 89%, followed by Hispanic households at 92%. Asian households had the highest percentage, at 98%.

In 2018-22, over 52,100 (14%) of households in Westchester County did not have access to a vehicle. White residents of the county were most likely to drive alone to work (67%), versus using public transportation (21%), carpooling (7%), or using another form of transportation, such as motorcycles, bicycles, taxis or walking (5%). In comparison, African Americans and Asians had higher levels of public transportation use, 28% and 23%, respectively.

Environmental measures show Westchester is a densely populated county with good air quality and more protected land but a mixed trend in water quality in the Long Island Sound.

Westchester County had a 2022 population density of 2,299 people per square mile, well above the state average of 418 per square mile and the U.S. average of 94 per square mile.

In 2023, 88% of days with air quality measurements in Westchester County were good air days, similar to the rate in 2022, and a 14 percentage point increase from 2010. The lowest point in the last two decades was 66% good air days in 2007.

In 2022, the Eastern Narrows sub-region of Long Island Sound received a score of 75%, or a grade of C on a scale from A-F. This was down slightly from 2018 (82% or B-) but similar to 2016 (70% or C-). The lower grade was mainly due to worsening chlorophyll-a, a measure of microalgae growth in the Sound, along with fluctuating weather conditions, according to the report card. Save the Sound also assigns a rating of Improving, Stable, Variable, or Declining to each sub-region based on its scores over a 12-year period; the Eastern Narrows trend in 2022 was lowered from Stable to Variable.

The County has about 760 square miles of permanently protected open space, up from 705 square miles in 2006. A little more than 1,000 square miles of land was not permanently protected but still contributed to open space character in 2022 (e.g., private recreation facilities, farms, land along utility lines). This was similar to the County’s 2006 count.