Posted on December 16th, 2025 in NCR-Stat, NCR-Stat Datasets, NCRCRD News

As a result of an innovative data initiative, the Regional Rural Development Centers — the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD), the Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC),  the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development (NERCRD), and the Western Rural Development Center (WRDC) — 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, Northeast, and Western regions was collaboratively developed by a team of partners from 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. With all four regional surveys completed and published, the Baseline Survey 2024 open access data is available for the entire United States.

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 extreme weather, and residents’ 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 four, 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.”

SRDC Director John J. Green, a collaborator on the survey, noted that, “Using a common questionnaire and methods, this project provides data that allow for both within and between region analyses. Additionally, the data supplement the other data sources typically used to inform regional development efforts.”

All four open access Baseline Survey 2024 datasets reside individually on the Purdue University Research Repository (PURR). Total respondents (for all four surveys): 18,596.

Other regional surveys conducted by the Centers include NCR-Stat: Baseline 2022, NCR-Stat: Caregiving, NER-Stat: Caregiving, and NCR-Stat: Small Business.

The RRDCs are regionally focused centers funded by USDA NIFA through the U.S. Congress annual appropriations process. The RRDCs conduct research and outreach programming that builds the capacity of the Land-Grant University System to address crucial needs in our nation’s rural communities. Learn more about the RRDCs.