National Community Survey

The National Community Survey™ (The NCS™) report is about the “livability” of Santa Cruz. A livable community is a place that is not simply habitable, but that is desirable. It is not only where people do live, but where they want to live. The survey was developed by the experts from National Research Center at Polco.

2024

The report provides the opinions of a representative sample of 443 residents of the City of Santa Cruz collected from April 17th, 2024 to May 29th, 2024. The margin of error around any reported percentage is 4.7% for all respondents and the response rate for the 2024 survey was 15%. Survey results were weighted so that the demographic profile of respondents was representative of the demographic profile of adults in Santa Cruz.

All households within the City of Santa Cruz were eligible to participate in the survey. A list of all households within the zip codes serving Santa Cruz was purchased from Polco's mailing vendor, Go-Dog Direct, based on updated listings from the United States Postal Service. The 3,000 randomly selected households received mailings beginning on April 17th, 2024 and data collection for the survey remained open for 6 weeks. The first mailing was a postcard inviting the household to participate in the survey. The next mailing contained a cover letter with instructions, the survey questionnaire, and a postage-paid return envelope. All mailings included a web link to give residents the opportunity to respond to the survey online, as well as QR codes to further encourage participation. All follow-up mailings asked those who had not completed the survey to do so, and those who had already done so to refrain from completing the survey again. The survey was available in English and Spanish. All mailings contained paragraphs in both languages instructing participants on how to complete the survey in their preferred language.

View the full 2024 report(PDF, 3MB) or check out the online dashboard to see the survey results.

You can listen to Polco present this data through this video.

2021 Survey

The survey includes the opinions of a representative sample of 474 residents of the City of Santa Cruz collected from Oct. 1to Nov. 19, 2021. The margin of error around any reported percentage is 4.5% for all respondents and the response rate for the 2021 survey was 18%. Survey results were weighted so that the demographic profile of respondents was representative of the demographic profile of adults in Santa Cruz. In addition to the opinions of a random sample, the report also includes the results from an open participation survey that any resident could complete.

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