What small town people see as their biggest challenges

And what topics rural people most want help with

Update: 2023 results will be released soon

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.

Previous survey results reports

See analysis of the Survey of Rural Challenges 2015-2021

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.

Who this survey is for

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

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.

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.

Press and Media Information

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.

Media coverage

2022

Today’s Interview: Becky McCray, of Save Your Town on leadership in flood stricken eastern Kentucky, with Tom Martin, WEKU
Midwest Farm Report, “Save Your Small Town,” Wisconsin
WOSU, All Sides with Ann Fisher, Changing landscape of rural America and small towns
A Cleave within the Piney Woods: Nacogdoches, Stephen F. Austin State University and How Racial Integration Divided the Town and Gown, Stephen F. Austin State University, Texas, thesis by Caitlin R. Hornback, 2022
Comprehensive Land Use Plan Update, Survey of Rural Challenges, Jones County Iowa, 2022
What challenges do you face in your community and business? Tell us here, reprinted from Small Biz Survival, Dr. Rayyan Eshaghpour, Asia
Strategic Management Planning Program and Five-Year Financial Management Plan, Survey of Rural Challenges, Greene County, Pennsylvania, 2022
Village of Hinckley, Illinois, Planning Commission Meeting minutes
K-State Research and Extension email newsletter, December 2022
Radically Rural email newsletters, Survey of Rural Challenges, December 2022, Brushy Fork Leadership Institute email newsletter, December 2022
University of Missouri Extension Engaged Neighbor Newsletter, December 2022
What counts as rural? Becky McCray email newsletter
What challenges do you face in your community and business? Tell us here, Small Biz Survival
What challenges do you face in your community and business? Building Possibility
What challenges does your community or business face? Tell us here, SaveYour.Town

2021

Research results presented to Oklahoma State University Rural Renewal Symposium
Presented to National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association five Regional Meetings nationwide
Public Policy in Contentious Times by Peter K. Kresl, 2021, published by Edward Elgar Publishing
North Central Kansas Pandemic Recovery and Resiliency Plan, North Central Regional Planning Commission, 2021
LaJunta (Colorado) Tribune-Democrat – SaveYour.Town Survey of Rural Challenges pinpoints small town needs
Cooperative Living Magazine, New Ways to Boost Rural Areas, October 2021
High Plains Journal, Speaker shares tips on tackling rural housing challenges: SaveYour.Town co-founder taps into sever years of surveys with small communities
Midwest Farm Report, “Rural Towns Recover From Pandemic,” Wisconsin
Rural Messenger, First Friday speaker shares tips on tackling rural housing challenges
Idaho Business Review, National rural challenges survey on par with Idaho’s
Kansas Ag Connection, First Friday speaker shares tips on tackling rural housing challenges
The Paper, Dwight, Illinois, The Corner by Tom Tock, July 2021
Radically Rural email newsletter, July 2021
Tourism Currents newsletter, June 2021, July 2021 email newsletter
Small town greatness, AARP Live, RFD-TV
Miltonvale (Kansas) Record, June 2021
Atchison County (Missouri) Development Corporation newsletter, June 2021 sent via Atchison County Mail newspaper saturation issue to all county residents
This is Where You Belong, author Melody Warnick, email newsletter, Issue 41, June 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

Small Towns, Big Opportunities: Rural-Business Expert Becky McCray, MarketingProfs podcast
Big Sky Economic Development, email newsletter, December 2020
Wisconsin State Representative Tony Kurtz email newsletter, December 2020
Inside Our Industry, Agracel, Inc., email newsletter, Issue 21, November 2020
Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Council of Governments, Weekly Reader, January 2020
Western Nevada Development District, The Results Are In!
LISC Rural eNews, February 2020
Small and Rural Community Marketing Program: Experience Community, 2020
Small Biz Survival, How has 2020 changed the challenges rural small towns face? Tell us here
RuralRISE email update, October 2020
Survey of Rural Challenges, Obion County, Tennessee
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
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
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 Rural Blog, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues Survey of Rural Challenges, open through July 30, helps widely scattered rural communities share ideas
Rural Delivery newsletter, New York State Rural Housing Coalition, Inc, August 2019, Survey of Rural Challenges
The Rise of the Rural Millennial, Archinect, Feb 2019
The Rise of the Rural Millennial, BBHousing.org reprinted from Archinet
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

2018

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
Population Smallsville, Invision Magazine, June 2018

2017

How Small and Rural Towns Can Attract, Retail Millennials, SmallBusiness.com
South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Saving Small Town South South Dakota
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

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.

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.