The 2024 Insights Survey Report Is Here!
From June to August 2024, the Regional Research Institute for Human Services (RRI) at Portland State University (PSU), in collaboration with the City Budget Office, conducted the Insights Survey. More than 4,200 Portland residents participated, sharing their perspectives on City services and budget priorities.
RRI analyzed the data and produced a detailed report of the findings. Check out the results below:
What’s Next?
Later in 2025, we’ll be hosting focus groups to dive deeper into community experiences and perspectives. These qualitative conversations will build on the survey data and provide additional insights.
The next biennial Insights Survey is planned for 2026.
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What is the Insights Survey?
Starting in fall 2022, the City adopted a new approach to gather your thoughts on our services, policy decisions, and budget plans. We named it the Portland Insights Survey. Our aim is to ensure that every Portlander, especially those who have historically been underserved, is represented and heard in our government.
In collaboration with the Portland City Budget Office and the Regional Research Institute for Human Services (RRI) at Portland State University (PSU), we’ve been working diligently to understand community perceptions and needs.
Why Your Input Matters
The survey aims to:
- Develop a comprehensive understanding of Portlanders’ perceptions of city government and its services.
- Incorporate this valuable feedback into performance evaluations of the City’s programs and services.
- Inform the city’s budget development and policy-making processes to create more equitable and data-driven administrative practices.
The 2024 survey questions were updated from the 2022 version to better reflect current priorities and will provide crucial insights for our 12 new council members and mayor starting in 2025.
How do I view prior years’ survey and focus group reports?
The first round of the survey was conducted in the fall/winter of 2022 and will be administered every two years. This representative and generalizable survey provided valuable data and insights for both the City government and the Portland community.
To complement the survey's qualitative findings, focus group discussions were held in 2023 with the help of our PSU and community partners. These discussions, along with qualitative comments from the 2022 survey, were used to create a detailed qualitative report. This report offers a narrative of people’s perspectives and experiences that aren’t captured in the quantitative data.
You can explore the previous years' Portland Insights results, both quantitative and qualitative, through our online interactive report and PDF versions:
FAQs
How are we gathering input?
Through the Portland Insights Survey, the City of Portland conducts a survey (quantitative data) one year and gather feedback through focus-group discussions (qualitative data) the next year. This approach allows us to understand the perspectives of all Portlanders in a nuanced way. We are working with the Regional Research Institute at Portland State University to design and conduct the survey and the discussions.
In addition to an English version, the survey questions have been translated into Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Ukrainian, which are the five most spoken, non-English languages in Portland. The quantitative survey is available online, on paper, and via the phone.
How did we select survey participants?
We used a hybrid approach, which consisted of a randomized, mail survey and an opt-in survey option for historically underrepresented communities to recruit survey participants.
20,000 Portland households were randomly selected to receive an invitation letter to fill out the survey. In addition, we partnered with community organizations to provide the opt-in survey and directly engage with communities for which the traditional means of outreach (eg. townhall meetings, listening sessions) have not served well. Our PSU partner combined and analyzed the data gathered through both methods.
How did we conduct multicultural outreach?
The City of Portland is committed to having an inclusionary and equity-forward outreach plan around the Portland Insights Survey, as part of its commitment to the City’s Core Values. One of the ways to reach more Portlanders was through close partnerships with City’s Employee Resource Groups and community-based organizations, including:
- Community Engagement Liaison Services (CELs)
- The Miracles Club
- Portland All Nations Canoe Family
- Rosewood Initiative
These community organizations reach the communities they serve directly or work with other organizations within their network.
How do we protect participants’ privacy?
Data collected through the web survey are only accessible to the members of the PSU research team. Data collected through the paper surveys are received by and stored at PSU by these same team members. No information identifying who a participant is (name, address, etc.) is included with either the web or paper survey responses. Instead, individual identification (ID) numbers are printed on the surveys or are used to access the web survey; these ID numbers are used to keep track of which households completed the survey. That way, we only continue to reach out to the households that have not completed the survey to make sure everyone has a chance to participate.
Once survey responses are at PSU, PSU secure the web survey data in password-protected electronic computer files. The paper surveys are kept in locked file cabinets. Only members of the PSU research team have access to these files. After they enter the paper survey answers into an electronic database and have checked to make sure everything was entered correctly, they shred the paper surveys. The electronic files of the survey data must be kept by PSU for at least three years after the survey project is completed before they are destroyed.
Some community members help us collect participant responses by connecting with people at events, in the parks, or at other public places to make sure we hear from as many groups as possible. These community members are trained in ways to best protect people’s privacy, consistently followed steps to ensure your privacy, and signed a confidentiality agreement stating their commitment to do so. These community partners would never ask for participants’ name, address, or other personal identity information.
What data are reported to the City by PSU?
PSU partners summarize the results of everyone’s responses to the survey in a report given to the City. Findings are only be reported in summary form. Findings presented for subgroups of respondents (for example, by age, zip code, racial or ethnic group, etc.) are only done when there is a large enough number of participants in any one subgroup so that individual privacy is protected.
PSU give the City a data file with individual survey responses that does NOT include personal identifying information. These data are used to create an online report on the City’s website. This online report only show data in summary form. The online report allows the public to view summary survey data to better understand the survey results.