What small town people see as their biggest challenges

And what topics rural people most want help with

Since 2015, over 1400 people answered the Survey of Rural Challenges. It uncovered big disconnects between what rural people want and what media, service providers and policy makers provide.

Services and assistance commonly offered to rural people don’t match up with what rural people say they want help with.

Common themes in media coverage and policy conversations around rural communities don’t match rural views.

What urban and suburban people think of rural challenges is tinged by stereotypes that don’t agree with what rural people are thinking.

Who this survey is for

If you live in a small town, you may want to see how your challenges compare to other towns.

Sometimes you might feel like you’re the only one who faces these challenges. You might even feel like you’re somehow a failure for not getting more done in your town. You may be surprised how common the challenges are. You’re not alone.

If you cover rural stories for any type of media, you want to break through shallow stereotyped coverage, It may help to hear the relative importance of different challenges to rural people.

Story assignments that draw conclusions for you keep you from telling the real stories, and you know there are limits to how deeply you can dive into rural communities as an outsider. You’re up against time constraints, budget limits and cultural barriers. The people you find in the coffee shop at 2 in the afternoon may not reflect the full spectrum of rural people.

If you provide services or assistance to small towns in your work, you will want to find out more about rural people’s own view of their challenges.

You may wonder if the type of assistance you provide is the right match for your communities, and you might realize that the people you’re helping may not be totally honest with you, or maybe they have a vested interest in continuing things as they’ve always been. In this survey, a broad sample of rural people have been free to share the unvarnished truth as they see it. You might learn that services that have been your mainstay for years are no longer a good fit for the challenges rural communities say they really struggle with.

Video: Analysis of survey results

A 23 minute video analysis of all four surveys’ results is available at SaveYour.Town, presented by co-founders Becky McCray and Deb Brown.

Here is a short sample of the video analysis:

Watch the full 23 minute video analysis at SaveYour.Town

Speaker on video: Becky McCray, co-founder of SaveYour.Town

This is the pattern that all four rounds of the survey revealed: people are most focused on a closely related set of ongoing challenges in their local communities.

These long-term local challenges include ones you’d expect in rural places, like population losses, lack of usable housing and the emptying of downtowns. For small businesses, it includes trouble finding people to hire, stiff competition from online businesses and the difficulty of marketing effectively. Then there are the hidden challenges, ones that often get overlooked outside of rural, like leaders being too closed to new ideas and resistant to change.

We think this focus on long term challenges has big implications for people who cover small towns in the media, people who offer services and support to rural communities, and people who write the legislation and policy that affects all rural areas.

What is most interesting to us is that this doesn’t line up with either the stories we saw most often in the media or the messages coming from organizations that serve rural people.

Do you serve in one of these organizations?

Economic development
- Jobs development authorities, industrial development groups
- Workforce boards
Community development, community foundations
Professionals who serve small towns
- Engineers, planners, architects
- Economic development and related consultants
Rural utilities, cooperatives
Rural banks, lenders
Local governments, Tribes, Planning and zoning, COGs
Educational institutions, schools, tech centers, community colleges, universities
Newspapers, rural media, online media

These survey results are crucial to understanding what rural people most need from you.

Press and Media Information

Origin of the Survey of Rural Challenges

Speaking: Becky McCray, creator of the Survey of Rural Challenges.

The very first time I ran the Survey of Rural Challenges, I was only asking people what topics they wanted me to write about on my site Small Biz Survival. That’s why the questions say things like “which of these would you be most excited to learn more about.” I never expected to share the results as a public report.

Once I read what people told me about their towns, the challenges they were facing, and what they most wanted help with, I realized that other people needed to see this, especially people and organizations who serve small towns.

For some reason, a lot of the services and assistance that I saw offered to small towns simply didn’t match what the people themselves were saying they most wanted help with.

Press release

About the survey methodology

Across 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021, a total of 1446 responses were collected online from subscribers and visitors to SaveYour.Town and SmallBizSurvival.com, from media coverage and cooperating groups that publicized the survey. Respondents identified themselves as rural by completing the survey, and 785 identified themselves as business owners by responding to the business questions.

Most people were from the United States, 79 from Canada, 24 from Australia and 19 from other international locations.

Based on SaveYour.Town customer data, most respondents likely serve as community leaders and officials, work in community and economic development, own their own business or work in a community-oriented business.

Previous survey results reports 2015, 2017, 2019

The 2021 survey results are available here.

The 2019 survey results are available here.

The 2017 survey results are available here.

The 2015 survey results are available here.

Media coverage

2021

Insight on Business the News Hour with Michael Libbie podcast, radio 1540 KXEL
Rural Route podcast with Trent Loos, May 2021, video and audio

2020

Big Sky Economic Development, email newsletter, December 2020
Inside Our Industry, Agracel, Inc., email newsletter, Issue 21, November 2020
Small Biz Survival, How has 2020 changed the challenges rural small towns face? Tell us here
RuralRISE email update, October 2020
Building Possibility, Survey of Rural Challenges 2020/21
SaveYour.Town, How has 2020 changed the challenges rural small towns face? Tell us here

2019

SmallBusiness.com, Challenges Facing Rural and Small Town Businesses and Residents| 2020
National Association of Development Organizations, email update January 2020
BIGG Success podcast with Georgre Krueger and Mary-Lynn Foster, Survey of Rural Challenges 2019
Radically Rural email update, Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship, December 2019
Alva Review-Courier, December 22, 2019, What do rural people say are their biggest challenges?
The Agurban, an Agracel Publication – #766 – Survey of Rural Challenges – 2019 Results
Marketing Profs, Small Towns Present Big Opportunities for Marketers: Rural-Business Expert Becky McCray on Marketing Smarts [Podcast]
Interesting Survey of Rural Challenges: The results don’t match common stereotypes of the biggest challenges to growth rural communities face, Ann Handley
Episode 34: Co-Creation in a Small Town – Rebecca Undem, December 2019
New Zealand Institute for Rural Entrepreneurship, Charging ahead: NZIRE is on the move – and so is rural entrepreneurship
Economic News – Easton Economic Development Corporation, December 2019
Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Council of Governments Weekly Reader, January 2020, CWCOG Economic Development District
Daily Yonder, ‘Speak Up, Rural America,’ Say Small-Town Business Consultants
Rural Assembly, email update July 2019 Survey of Rural Challenges open through July 30
The Results are in! SAVEYOUR.Town has released the results of its 2019 Survey of Rural Challenges. Western Nevada Development District
The Rural Blog, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues Survey of Rural Challenges, open through July 30, helps widely scattered rural communities share ideas
LISC Rural eNews, February 2020
Rural Delivery, New York State Rural Housing Coalition, Inc, August 2019, Survey of Rural Challenges
The Hoptown Chronicle (Kentucky) – Survey of Rural Challenges, open through July 30, lets people in small towns share ideas
The Agurban, an Agracel Publication – Survey of Rural Challenges

2017

International Association of Community Development, “Survey of Rural Challenges 2017: What small town people in the US and Canada see as their biggest challenges and what topics they most want help with,” Practice Insights issue 10, March 2018
Main Street America, State of Main 2018, The Future of Retail
South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Saving Small Town South South Dakota
The Rise of the Rural Millennial, Archinect
Population Smallsville, Invision Magazine
Renewed Interest: A Fresh Look at the Rural Church, Collaborative Development International, December 2017
McClusky Gazette, North Dakota, Survey of Rural Challenges 2017

2015

EntreWorks – Challenges for Rural Retail
Agurban – What rural people say they need
Tourism Currents – Small town tourism challenges? Survey says…
Small Biz Survival – What rural people say they need: the Survey of Rural Challenges
Republic County Kansas Economic Development – What rural people say they need.
NeedALittleAdvice – SaveYour.Town update

About SaveYour.Town

SaveYour.Town believes small towns can be saved by their own people using their existing assets. Deb Brown and Becky McCray joined forces in May 2015 to help small towns and rural communities thrive. They deliver speeches and presentations internationally, lead site visits and community brainstorming sessions, and create online videos and short courses of practical steps that can be put into action right away.

About Small Biz Survival

SmallBizSurvival.com publishes practical articles for rural small businesses. It was founded in January 2006 by Becky McCray from Oklahoma. Over the 14 years it has achieved top ranking among small business blogs on sites like Technorati, Invesp BlogRank and BizHumm, and it continues to appear on lists of top small business blogs. For her work as publisher, McCray has been named one of the Power Players in Technology Business Media and a Small Business Influencer Journalist four times.

About Becky McCray

Becky McCray is a lifelong small-town entrepreneur. As co-founder of Save Your.Town, she shares insights from her real-world experience as a business owner and cattle rancher. Throughout her career, rural has been the focus. She managed a retail store, served as city administrator and nonprofit executive, bought and sold antiques and taught classes in business and technology. Her practical perspective is featured at her highly-ranked website, Small Biz Survival, and in her award-winning book, Small Town Rules. She’s been featured and quoted in books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, podcasts and university publications. She makes her home base in Hopeton, Oklahoma, a community of 30 people.

About Deb Brown

Deb Brown is a small town enthusiast and expert for small towns. Her practical approach for getting communities into action right away has been shared at national conferences, local visits, service organizations and everything in between. Her wealth of experience includes foreign casualty insurance underwriting, bartending, retail management, selling knives around the US, leading a chamber and working with small towns. Deb has lived in tiny towns, small towns, small cities and a major metro city. She’s come home to a small town and travels to many other rural communities to help. She collaborates with Becky McCray at SaveYour.Town and has her own business www.BuildingPossibility.com.