Posted on April 3rd, 2025 in NCRCRD News

As a result of an innovative data initiative, three Regional Rural Development Centers — the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD), the Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC), and the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development (NERCRD) — have published open access data from their groundbreaking, multi-region Baseline Survey 2024. This valuable data establishes an important baseline for future research and can inform policy decisions, community development strategies, and targeted interventions to address regional challenges and opportunities.

The Baseline Survey 2024 conducted in the North Central, Southern, and Northeast regions was developed collaboratively by NCRCRD, SRDC, and Auburn University. The survey explores essential topics related to household, business, and community well-being and aims to learn more about the conditions, issues, and challenges faced by rural and urban communities and their residents in each region.

Based on NCRCRD’s initial North Central Region household survey conducted in 2022 (NCR-Stat: Baseline 2022), the Baseline Survey 2024 contained questions adapted and expanded from the original survey’s broad spectrum of topics as well as questions created to gather data on new topics such as the recreation economy, perceptions and impacts of climate change, and resident’s intentions to move or stay and the reasons behind those decisions.

Zuzana Bednarik, NCRCRD Research and Extension Specialist who led the survey’s development and implementation shared, “We sought to develop these three, open access datasets to help researchers, Extension specialists and educators, policy makers, and economic development practitioners to better understand trends in the individual regions and their states.”

All three open access Baseline 2024 datasets reside individually on the Purdue University Research Repository (PURR). All surveys were conducted in 2024. Total respondents (for all three surveys): 14,094.

Additional insights about the datasets: An upcoming NCRCRD webinar on May 9, 2025, at 3:00 pm (ET) will explore key findings from the NCR-Stat, SR-Stat, and NER-Stat Baseline 2024 survey data. Webinar information and registration: https://ncrcrd.ag.purdue.edu/webinars/

NCR-Stat Database
The NCR-Stat: Baseline 2024 dataset is part of a larger effort by NCRCRD to build the NCR-Stat database to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers and Extension, and between high- and low-resourced institutions across the region. “We are very excited about the growth of our North Central Region database. The publication of the NCR-Stat: Baseline 2024 is significant for our region as it allows researchers and Extension to begin to study regional issues and challenges over time. And having the SRDC and NERCRD join us in expanding the Baseline Survey to their regions will only provide more opportunities for collaboration,” said Dr. Maria Marshall, Director, NCRCRD.

Other North Central Region datasets available include:

 

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If you would like more information about this topic, please email Mary Breidenbach, NCRCRD Communications Specialist at mabreide@purdue.edu.

To stay up-to-date on the NCR-Stat database and the Center’s other endeavors, please consider joining the NCRCRD mailing list.

The North Central Regional Center for Rural (NCRCRD) is one of four Regional Rural Development Centers in the United States. NCRCRD’s work links the research and educational outreach capacity of our region’s 34 land-grant universities with our region’s communities, local decision-makers, entrepreneurs, families, farmers, and ranchers to help address a wide range of development issues unique to our 12-state region. NCRCRD promotes regional collaboration by elevating the research and extension programs in our region; offering grant opportunities to support new and ongoing regional research, extension, and integrated activities; establishing a North Central Region dataset to encourage regional exploration; and creating networking opportunities through webinars, sponsorships, and making introductions between our partners. For more information, please visit https://ncrcrd.org/.

NCRCRD receives core funds from the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) as well as from the North Central Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (NCRA), North Central Cooperatives of Extension Association (NCCEA), and Purdue University, College of Agriculture.

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