Last year, the Nebraska Rural Poll celebrated its 25th anniversary. This year will be another special milestone for the survey. Within the next month, the Rural Poll will once again arrive in mailboxes of 7,000 Nebraskans living in rural parts of the state, just as it has each year since 1996. However, this year 7,000 households in the metropolitan parts of Nebraska will also receive the same survey. The Nebraska Business Development Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha has provided funding to expand the survey to the counties in the Omaha and Lincoln metropolitan areas that are typically excluded from the sample of the Nebraska Rural Poll.
The Rural Poll has historically given rural Nebraskans an opportunity to voice their opinions on wide-ranging and important topics including agricultural policy, energy, climate change, crime, education, health care, housing, immigration, taxes, community development strategies, and technology. In addition, questions about personal and community well-being and satisfaction are asked every year. These core questions give city and state leaders, economic developers and others who use this poll data the ability to measure changes over time in rural Nebraskans’ sense of well-being and satisfaction with their communities. (MORE)
The Nebraska Rural Poll is an annual survey conducted by the UNL Department of Agricultural Economics in partnership with Rural Prosperity Nebraska and Nebraska Extension.