-NRC Q&A-

Creating an effective citizen survey, that asks the right questions, can be quite the process for cities, counties and towns that want to take a strong pulse of livability in their community. For this reason, National Research Center, Inc. social scientists and a team of local government professionals developed a benchmarking survey that would allow jurisdictions to better understand resident opinion in a meaningful way.  About 20 years later, The National Citizen Survey^TM (The NCS^TM) is helping communities across the U.S. put opinion data into context.

The NCS is built on nationally benchmarked survey questions, so community leaders don’t have to worry about developing the questions themselves and have the ability to compare their city’s performance with hundreds of others.  NRC Director of Operations and Development Lee Tyson describes the types of questions on The National Citizen Survey™ (The NCS™) and even how they can be customized.

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Specific, Yet Easy to Answer

The NCS^TM covers a broad range of topics in just five pages, so we ask specific questions that address the concepts or ideas your city is interested in. At the same time, the questions are designed to be easy for residents to understand and answer.

Inspiration from Research

We also take into account other literature when designing our survey questions to make sure we’re asking relevant and topical questions. NRC has been gathering resident opinion data from surveys for over 20 years, so we have an extensive library of questions to ask in a community survey.

Full Scope of Data

The NCS asks questions on topics such as Safety, Mobility, Natural Environment, Built Environment, Economy, Recreation and Wellness, Education and Enrichment and Community Engagement and Overall Quality of Life. This ensures we’re getting data on everything you could possibly need for strategic planning, budgeting and other related responsibilities.

Customize Your Questions

There is an entire page available on The NCS for custom questions pertaining specifically to your community’s needs. Our experienced data scientists are ready to provide feedback on the best ways to phrase custom questions, so that you can receive the most valuable and comparable data possible.

Learn more about The National Citizen Survey^TM

Related Articles

• How to Write Custom Survey Questions
• Why Cities Should Survey Citizens
• What’s a Citizen Survey?
• What’s the Best Way to Survey?

National Research Center, Inc. (NRC) is a leading full-service survey research and evaluation firm focusing on the information requirements of the public sector, including local governments, health care providers, foundations and non-profit organizations.  Visit our home on the Web at www.n-r-c.com.  Check out our media page for more news, tips and human-interest stories from NRC.