Survey of Rural Challenges news

Survey of Rural Challenges

What small town people see as their biggest challenges

And what topics rural people most want help with

What is the Survey of Rural Challenges?

The survey is a project of SaveYour.Town and SmallBizSurvival.com, and it is open for responses every other year. People participate mostly from across the US, Canada and other countries including Australia, the UK and New Zealand. Since 2015, over 2200 people have answered the survey. 

Rural experts Becky McCray and Deb Brown analyze the results and share them at both websites as public reports, infographics, presentations and articles. All the previous editions of the survey as well as all press mentions and presentations are listed below.  

2015 to 2024 trends

Read the full report

The Survey of Rural Challenges asks rural people to share their ground-level insight into the challenges they face and the assets they can use. This new report analyzes over 2200 responses from communities across the US and Canada from 2015 to 2024. The responses show what’s changing and what isn’t in small towns and rural places from the point of view of their own people.

Persistent challenges: Youth out-migration, downtown decline, workforce shortages and struggles with local business marketing continue to challenge rural communities. 

Fast-moving concerns: The housing crisis, lack of adequate childcare and lack of support for small businesses have increased as significant rural challenges in recent years.

Slow-building challenges: Over time, the lack of volunteers, the pressure from online competition on local businesses, and the lack of usable commercial buildings have risen to greater importance. 

Appreciating assets: The strength of rural communities to address their challenges comes from significant assets, including natural resources, strong social bonds, a spirit of entrepreneurship, a small but dedicated workforce and action on broadband access.

Demographic shifts: Besides basic population numbers in their communities, rural people noted differences in ages, professions, education and more.

The external view: Much of this nuance is lost in the external understanding of rural challenges and assets in the media, government, organizations and agencies.

The primary conclusion is that although good ideas are stifled by conflict, negativity and old way thinking, communities that are open to new ideas can thrive. Agencies, organizations, media and policy makers can use these insights to improve how they serve rural people. 

See the 10 year report here

I wait every other year for the results of this rural survey to help us align our work at Crowdfund Better with what rural businesses need. Thanks to Becky McCray and Deb Brown of SaveYour.Town for your dedication to putting this report together that reflects the challenges felt by real people who live and work in rural communities.

Kathleen Minogue

Crowdfund Better, Idaho

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.

Important reading for any Economic Development professional serving a rural or small town community.

Clark Hoskin

Deloitte Canada

Previous survey reports

The 2024 survey results are available here

The 2023 survey results are available here.

See analysis of 2015 – 2021 rounds of the Survey of Rural Challenges 

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.

Methodology

The Survey of Rural Challenges is open every other year. 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 a portion identified themselves as business owners by responding to the business question. Participants included people from the USA, Canada, Australia and 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 businesses, work in a community-oriented business or volunteer informally in their community. 

The survey is applied research based on a consistent survey protocol that supports data-driven conclusions. Similar to phenomenology, the people within the situation describe their own experiences, and there is a consensus of experiences amongst the participants or informants.

I am impressed with your research instincts for structure, valid iterative qualitative evaluation of the data you collect, and honesty with the results.

Malinda Hendricks Green, PhD

Retired Professor, Education and Professional Studies
University of Central Oklahoma

Media coverage

2025

2024

2023

Presented to National Rural Housing Conference, poster session, October 24 – 27 in Washington DC

Presented to West Virginia Brownfields & Main Street Conference, poster session, September 12-14 in Wheeling, WV

Becky McCray presents Survey of Rural Challenges to Dr. Mark Balschweid of University of Nebraska-Lincoln at the poster session at Oklahoma State University's Rural Renewal Symposium
Becky McCray shares the Survey of Rural Challenges with Dr. Mark Balschweid of University of Nebraska-Lincoln at the poster session at Oklahoma State University’s Rural Renewal Symposium

Presented to Rural Renewal Symposium, Oklahoma State University, poster session, November 2-3 in rural Oklahoma 

Presented to Teeny Tiny Town Summit, Northwest Oklahoma Alliance, Q&A session, October 10, Woodward, OK

Presented by Gus Wagner to Missouri’s Electric Cooperatives communicators

Presented by Andrew Van Leuven, Assistant Professor, Oklahoma State University, to combined civic groups in Alva, Oklahoma

Special project:

Estherville News (Iowa) published a 3-part series Spilling the Commun-tea based on the Survey of Rural Challenges. They invited local people to share their stories of community challenges and assets. This series earned second place as Best Series in the Iowa Newspaper Association awards.

2022

2021

Presented to Oklahoma State University Rural Renewal Symposium

Presented to National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association five Regional Meetings nationwide

2020

2019

2018

2017

2015

This is great data! I’m working on a needs assessment of rural small business owners in relation to digital media this summer. I’m hoping to use the results to inform my Extension efforts. The insight from your survey is very helpful. Thanks for sharing!

Headshot of Audrey King

Audrey E. H. King, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Agricultural Communications and Digital Media State Extension Specialist, Oklahoma State University

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 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 rural entrepreneur, cattle rancher and co-founder of SaveYour.Town. She created the Survey of Rural Challenges in 2015. As an expert on rural communities, she often collaborates on rural publications, initiatives, advisory boards, listening sessions and advocacy events including Oklahoma State University’s Rural Renewal Initiative, American Independent Business Alliance campaigns, and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Reimagining the Economy Project.

In 2013, Becky and Chicago author Barry Moltz wrote the award-winning book Small Town Rules, published by Que BizTech. She has presented at more than 300 rural and small town events in the US, Canada, UK and Australia, including Main Street America, International Economic Development Council (IEDC) and TEDx. She makes her home in Hopeton, Oklahoma, a community of 30 people. 

About Deb Brown

Deb Brown is a dynamic small-town advocate and community development expert with a wealth of experience helping rural communities. As the co-founder of SaveYour.Town, she has been working alongside Becky McCray for a decade, providing practical advice and innovative solutions to shape brighter futures for small towns.

Deb excels at building connections, storytelling, and active listening. Drawing on skills she developed through chamber of commerce work, a variety of business and management experience, and her love of small towns, she guides people in taking small steps toward their ideas and helps them find the resources and connections needed to bring those ideas to fruition. Deb has helped communities address challenges like empty buildings, loss of residents, downtown rejuvenation, creating economic growth, and marketing and promotion. 

Deb developed the stories from the rural communities she has worked with and wrote a book, “From Possibilities to Reality: Save Your Small Town with these Uniquely Do-able Ideas, Projects, and Success Stories.” It is a comprehensive workbook filled with practical strategies and real-world examples for small-town revitalization. 

Website and social media links

Survey Results and News Room:

  • https://saveyour.town/surveynews

LinkedIn: Small Biz Survival, SaveYour.Town

Twitter: @SBSurvival, @SaveYourTown

Instagram: @SaveYourTown

Facebook: Small Biz Survival, SaveYour.Town

For more info contact

Becky McCray

  • becky@saveyour.town

Deb Brown

  • deb@saveyour.town