The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD) is pleased to announce the publication of a new open access, regional dataset – the NCR-Stat: Housing & Food Security Survey. This thematic survey provides important data on two critically understudied and increasingly important issues of the North Central Region.
The Center developed this survey in collaboration with Samuel Mindes, Adjunct Assistant Professor at Iowa State University and NCRCRD Fellow, with the objective to better understand differences in housing situations and food security between households residing in rural and urban areas.
Mindes, who led the design of the survey as part of his Fellow project, was assisted by Iowa State University undergraduate student researcher, Samantha Mori and collaborated closely with NCRCRD Research and Extension Specialist, Zuzana Bednarik.
“The dataset is particularly valuable because it provides individual-level data, enabling researchers to examine how housing and food insecurity relate to demographic, geographic, economic, and social factors, and to investigate how these issues are often intertwined for households,” shared Mindes.
Designed as a 15-minute online survey in Qualtrics, it focuses on households across all states in the North Central Region, with the goal of maximizing participation across rural and urban areas, household types, gender, age, and race/ethnicity. Conducted in late 2025, the survey emphasized household demographics, housing costs and features, safety, moving and staying behaviors, and food security.
Mindes added, “A unique detail of the survey is that it inquired about the use of food and housing assistance programs, which will provide a better understanding of how these programs are used and underused by at-need groups.”
The NCR-Stat: Housing & Food Security Survey is an open access dataset and available for anyone to download and use. It is one of five surveys – two baseline surveys and three thematic surveys – that currently comprise the NCR-Stat database.
Upcoming Webinar:
Dr. Mindes will introduce the NCR-Stat: Housing and Food Security Survey, share survey details, and explore key findings in an upcoming NCRCRD webinar on August 25, 2026 at 2:00 pm ET (1:00 pm CT). Information and registration will be posted soon on the NCRCRD webinars page.
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The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (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 rural communities to help address a wide range of development issues unique to our 12-state region.
The Center’s work is supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.