Collinsville National Community Survey Takeaways
By Ray Popkess • At their most recent city council meeting on June 23, Collinsville City Council members were presented with key findings regarding the 2026 National Community Survey.
The National Community Survey (NCS; formerly known as the National Citizen Survey) is a benchmark survey used across the United States to collect feedback from residents regarding their perspectives and experience living in a specific city. The NCS refers to this as “livability.” Collinsville has used the NCS in the past (2007, 2009, 2011, 2019, 2023) and again this year. The survey provides benchmarks for Collinsville against our own previous NCS surveys as well as those completed nationally.
Assistant City Manager Jessica Short shared that the survey was randomly dispersed in the form of postcards to about 3,500 households through a survey administrator, POLCO. The survey ran from March 17 through April 28 of this year and received 456 responses, a response rate just more than 13%. Results of the physical survey were weighted to represent the demographics of Collinsville. An open survey was also made available via the city’s website and social media, but those results were not reflected in the dataset presented to the city council.
Collinsville’s survey collected opinions on the city’s “Quality of Life,” “Confidence in Collinsville’s Governance” and “10 Facets of Livability,” with a five-point Likert scale of “Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor and Don’t Know.”
Quality of life is the overall opinion of Collinsville as a place to live, to recommend as a place to live, to remain in for the next five years and Collinsville’s image/reputation. In terms of “Quality of Life,” 63% of respondents rated Collinsville as “Good” or better, with only 6% rating “Poor.” However, the 63% rating “Good” or better is lower than the national benchmark. Respondents that said they would remain in the city for the next five years increased 7% from 2023’s survey. The overall image of the city according to respondents increased 5% from 2023.
In the next portion of the survey, respondents were polled on governance, which consisted of public communication, customer service, value of services for taxes, transparency, equality and overall confidence. Around 39% of respondents polled “Good” or better in these facets of city government, which was a 4% decrease from 2023 but still similar to the national benchmark.
For the final portion of the survey, respondents were asked about the 10 Facets of Livability within the city. These facets are listed in order of importance according to respondents: utility infrastructure quality, feeling of safety, economic health, natural environment quality, parks and recreation opportunities, education, arts and culture opportunities, residents’ connection and engagement, health and wellness opportunities, city design/layout and transportation system quality.
Only 33% rated their most important facet of livability, utility infrastructure quality, as “Good” or better, which is a 26% decrease from 2023. It’s important to note that any difference greater than 7% from 2023 to 2026 in this category is considered statistically significant. The decrease in utility infrastructure quality can be attributed to the recent discovery of PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances) in the water supply, Short explained. She mentioned that, tentatively, there is a contract for engineering services related to the remediation of PFAS that will be discussed at the next city council meeting.
Other statistically significant changes appeared in the improvement of educational, arts and culture opportunities as well as the quality of the transportation system. With tremendous turnouts to events like Italian Festival, The Horseradish Festival, Catsup Bottle Festival and all the happenings at the Gateway Convention Center, the 43% rating of the education, arts and culture opportunities is a 10% increase from 2023. The transportation system quality also saw an improvement in the eyes of respondents, a 7% increase in the amount of “Good” or better since 2023.
Some key findings from the survey were highlighted by the leap utility infrastructure made in terms of respondent importance. Utilities also experienced the widest gap between ranking of importance (92%) versus ranking of quality (33%).
New questions were included in this year’s survey relating to residents’ reliance on various sources for information about the City. The City’s social media and newsletter scored very high (81% and 89% respectively) as reliable sources of information for activities, events, and services.
City staff will be posting the NCS results on the City’s website so that they are viewable to the public (www.collinsvilleil.org/community/national-citizen-survey-ncs). Additionally, staff will put out a social media post summarizing the findings of the NCS. The NCS results will be factored into upcoming planning efforts, including finalization of the 2045 Comprehensive Plan and the development of the new Strategic Plan. The City of Collinsville will be developing a new Strategic Plan this year and will use these findings to inform its development.
