White Pages Report: We Know Our Neighbors' Dogs More Than Their Kids

Despite the fact that most American adults who have neighbors (93 percent) say it’s important for neighbors to look out for each other’s safety, a new survey conducted online in June 2011 by Harris Interactive on behalf of WhitePages found that more of them can identify most of their neighbors’ cars (47 percent) than most of their neighbors’ first names (41 percent).

An even more startling revelation is that we (27 percent) know most of our neighbors’ pets more than most of our neighbors’ kids (24 percent).

WhitePages sponsored the survey in tandem with the launch of a new product called “Neighbors,” the first neighborhood satellite aerial map of U.S. household contact information, including first and last name, mailing address, associated household members, and
phone number to help neighbors more effectively get in touch.

“Whether you need help during an emergency, in planning a block party, or organizing a neighborhood watch committee, all of your neighbors’ contact information is now at your fingertips online for free,” said Alex Algard, CEO of WhitePages. “We’ve spent over 10 years cultivating our local people search database with the most accurate and up-to-date contact information for nearly every adult in the U.S. and are proud to be able to offer an immersive
new viewing mode to help people take a more active part in getting to know and interact with their neighbors.”

Going beyond making it easy to look up neighbors’ names and contact information, WhitePages has partnered with the National Night Out (NNO) to help neighbors coordinate block parties using the new innovative Block Party Invite and RSVP system offered through
WhitePages “Neighbors.”

Whether it’s planning a block party for the 28th Annual NNO
scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 2, or at any other time of people’s choosing.

For the purposes of this survey, neighbors were defined as the people in the 10 closest residences (e.g.,apartment/condo/townhouse units, homes).

WhitePages “Neighbors” block party planning tool can help people plan a neighborhood get together without having to worry about tracking down neighbors’ names and contact information by sending personalized postcard invites via the U.S. Postal Service
for free.

With the survey discovering that 34 percent of American adults who have neighbors do not feel comfortable asking their neighbors to keep an eye on their home when they go away, WhitePages and NNO hope people will use “Neighbors” Block Party invites to foster
relationships that lead to effective neighborhood watch initiatives that promote local safety.

While organizations like National Night Out have initiatives in place to improve relationships between neighbors as the key to keeping people safe, including having over 37 million people participate in its annual event last year, the survey discovered that 54 percent of American adults who have neighbors said their neighbors never have organized social events together.

The survey
also found that only 17% said they’ve been inside most of their neighbors’ homes and even
fewer (8%) said that they get together on a regular basis or are part of a formal block party
safety program in their neighborhood (6%). However, according to the survey, 67% percent of
Americans who have neighbors would like to know their neighbors better and 52% would like to
get together with their neighbors more often.
"If you look at the 1940s and the 1950s, neighborhoods were safer places because people knew
each other. Neighborhoods today are not as tightly knit as they used to be, even with Facebook
and other social media tools at their disposal,” said Matt Peskin, executive director, National
Association of Town Watch and creator of National Night Out. “By making it easier to plan block
parties any time of the year with ‘Neighbors,’ WhitePages helps people take a more active part
in getting to know and interact with the people who live on their street or at a nearby address,
which can help to improve neighborhood spirit, community partnerships, and local safety.”

To use “Neighbors,” visitors go to WhitePages.com, look for the “Address & Neighbors” header tab and enter their own address and the results will populate with the name, address, phone number, etc. of their immediate neighbors.

Should they want to expand their search beyond their own block, they can enter another address and start searching. WhitePages “Neighbors” also makes it easy for people to claim, edit and publish their contact information, control settings to let people know the best way to reach them or make their contact information private.

Offering local contact information for over 90 percent of U.S. adults, WhitePages uses public records and user-generated listings by more than 3 million WhitePages members to offer mapped views and a complete directory of neighbor contact information for nearly every
American household.

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of Whitepages.com from June 24-28, 2011 among 2,510 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey
is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please email lpowell@whitepages.com.

For more information, please visit www.nationalnightout.org.

Information for this article comes from a press release from WhitePage.com.