Quality of life in Maine is high — why do people say it’s getting worse?

BANGOR, Maine — A new statewide portrait of life in the Pine Tree State captures a distinct duality: Mainers hold a profound affection for their home, yet a significant share worry the state is heading in the wrong direction.

A poll commissioned by the Maine Trust for Local News and conducted by the Siena Research Institute interviewed 824 residents, asking how they feel about living and working in the state. The results, which will be released as part of a weeks-long data series, show that while three out of four respondents described their overall quality of life positively, optimism about the state’s trajectory is scarce.

Only 20% of participants said life in Maine is getting better or much better. Conversely, 38% said life is getting worse or much worse. According to Siena’s polling from last year, that pessimistic share is more than double the national percentage of people who reported that conditions are deteriorating in their own communities.

The findings suggest that for many, the disconnect lies between the beauty of the present moment and the practical struggles of the future.

Mainers ranked their safety and security in their own homes above the average American, while schools—particularly institutions of higher education—and the outdoors received high marks. Nature specifically was the second-most frequently cited benefit of the state, with 22% of respondents naming it the best thing about their community. Sixty-nine percent said the environment here is better than in other places they had lived or known.

For Maggie Hoffman and her family, that natural setting remains a primary draw. The Hampden resident moved from New York nearly a decade ago, trading a vibrant urban life outside New York City for an 18th-century town of roughly 8,000 people. She describes watching Cooper’s hawks, red foxes, and bald eagles circle over the Penobscot River, though she admits the transition required unlearning city habits.

Hoffman said the idyllic scenery, however, does not erase the practical challenges of raising a family in a rural area. Her 38-year-old son, who has developmental and intellectual disabilities and lives at home, requires a high level of daily support. Finding caregivers willing and able to meet those needs has become increasingly difficult, she said, tying the shortage directly to the state’s high cost of living and lack of affordable housing.

“I believe that our scarcest resource are human beings, and that we’re really forgetting what we need to do to keep Maine alive,” Hoffman said. “What are we, 1.4 million people in this vastness of beautiful forestry and great waters, and people can’t live here?”

That sentiment is shared across political and geographic lines, even as the reasons for discontent differ. Justin Crockett, a 44-year-old central Maine resident, noted that every male ancestor on his side of the family had lived and died in Maine since the mid-1600s, starting in Kittery. Yet after leaving for the Air Force 25 years ago and returning in 2022, Crockett said he was stunned by what he described as a sharp decline in the state.

Crockett, who grew up in Franklin County, said four of his childhood friends have died from drug overdoses in recent years, saw the sawmills in his hometown disappear, and watched public education quality drop. He expressed frustration that no one seems to be addressing these systemic issues.

“I haven’t seen anybody really doing anything toward fixing any of those problems,” Crockett said.

Like Crockett, Crockett and Patricia Smith, a 63-year-old Lewiston resident, fell into the minority of poll respondents who identified crime and public safety as major problems contributing to their view that things are getting much worse. Smith, who moved to Maine in 1983, credited small acts of neighborliness, such as landlords hiring local children to mow lawns or neighbors checking on one another during storms, as what she values most. Yet she blames local government management and rising crime for her pessimism.

While safety nets fray in the eyes of some, the informal support systems of Maine communities remain vibrant. On the Blue Hill peninsula in Hancock County, 74-year-old Joel Katz said he and his neighbors operate on a simple principle of mutual aid, illustrated when he delivered a pot of potato leek soup to an injured neighbor.

Katz, who moved to Maine full-time a decade after retiring from a career leading performing arts centers, said the community spirit was the first thing he thought of when asked what he loves about the state. “The people we live around are just outstanding,” Katz said.

That feeling is widespread. When asked to identify the number one best thing about their life in Maine, 46% of respondents statewide cited quality of life, lifestyle, and sense of community. In Down East, that figure rose to 52%.

Bill Nemitz, a retired journalist who spent decades writing a column for the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, said the survey results are not surprising given the state’s history. He noted that Maine has always maintained a strong identity tied to the tourism slogan “the way life should be.”

“It’s a state with a tempered resistance to change,” Nemitz said.

Nemitz argued that pessimism does not necessarily reflect hate for the state, but rather how dearly Mainers value what they have. He added that recent waves of newcomers since the pandemic have made change feel inevitable, while looking at global trends makes a degree of worry understandable.

“The fact that Mainers feel that way more strongly, perhaps, than other people in the country might be reflective of the fact that they value what they have so dearly,” Nemitz said.

For all its communal charm, Maine remains an expensive place to reside. The survey found that affordability is the single worst aspect of living in the state. For Katz and his wife, soaring costs mean deferring retirement luxuries. A planned trip to Europe has been cancelled, solar panels on their 1,000-square-foot home have been postponed, and they are holding off on home improvements because they do not want to deplete their savings.

They also see the shift in their local service economy. Katz volunteers at a food pantry and thrift shop where foot traffic has increased sharply in recent years. He observed a growing divide in his community while observing volunteers at the pantry.

“The rich have been doing very well, and the poor even worse,” Katz said.

The economic squeeze is felt acutely in rural counties like Washington County, where Charles Rudelitch, executive director of the Sunrise County Economic Council, noted that rising fuel and bait costs have cut profit margins for the region’s $100-million commercial fishing industry. At the same time, the median home price in the county has more than doubled over the last decade, while wages have risen only 54%.

Sean Thomas, who moved to Calais from Brockton, Massachusetts, four years ago, found that low housing costs did not guarantee work. After struggling with underemployment for an extended period, he now works part-time nights as a janitor. He said taking a second part-time job was offset by the loss of his Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, leaving him financially no better off despite working more.

“It’s taken me a long time to get established in having enough work,” Thomas said.

Thomas described Calais as feeling like stepping back in time, a comment that aligns with survey data on youth opportunity. Only 32% of those polled believed a young person in their community was likely to find a job with advancement potential, while 27% said it was unlikely, and 39% said it was a coin flip. In Down East, one-third of respondents viewed the prospect as unlikely.

Rudelitch said that while large-scale projects could revitalize these areas, they face political opposition that often scares off investors and stifles the community consensus needed to undertake them. He said he could imagine a rural Maine that serves as an economic anchor where families want to settle, but admitted it is difficult to see how that happens in the current climate.

Bill Green, a retired television reporter known for hosting a program about Maine’s outdoors, said the environmental advantages remain an accessible path to the state’s value.

“If you want to go out and grasp the goodness of Maine, you can still do it,” Green said. Hoffman agreed, summarizing the feeling she and many others hold on common ground despite their differing political views.

“It’s just the greatest thing ever, being out in nature,” she said.

The survey series will continue to explore these results over the coming weeks, including deeper looks at healthcare access and the rising cost of raising children.