Better health and dental care, safer housing, and cleaner communities and environment all made Androscoggin County’s to-do list, according to a survey released by Healthy Androscoggin this month.

The survey asked people to rate the community in 10 areas, ranging from religious opportunity to housing to economic activity.

Then, it asked them to talk about their priorities.

“The question was, if they had a year to work on it and money was not an issue, what would they do,” said spokesperson Erin Guay. The results fell into nine areas, with access to health and dental care topping the list.

“They said that health care is key, although they did agree that we do have an advantage since we have two hospitals in the county and many health clinics,” she said.

The surveys listed housing, jobs, education and recreation as the next most frequent priorities.

The survey, mailed to every mailbox in Androscoggin County last spring, was designed to let people rate their county’s health and suggest steps to improve matters. It asked them to rate religious opportunities, quality of life, safety, health care, cleanliness, recreation, economic opportunity and housing on a scale of one to five.

It also asked if Androscoggin County is a healthy place to raise children and a good place to grow old.

It’s part of the organization’s effort to improve health across the county.

“If our goal is to make our citizens healthier, the first thing we have to do is get the current conditions,” Guay said. “We need to find out what people want, and what kind of gaps they perceive. Then we can begin to look for ways to fill that need.”

In all, 1,546 responded to the survey. Half were from Lewiston-Auburn, they tended to be between 40 and 65 years old and had more college education than the population at large.

Most rated the county high in religious opportunity, quality of life, safety, health care and cleanliness. More than half agreed that the county had plenty of recreation, and fewer than half were satisfied with housing.

For economic activity, the results were mixed. About 36 percent felt there was economic opportunity, about 30 percent felt there was not and 32 percent were neutral on the question.

Most people rated the county as a good place to raise kids, with 62 percent agreeing. They didn’t give it as high marks for elders, rating it a 53 percent as a good place to grow old.