Polco’s benchmark surveys (and most custom surveys) include a number of standard demographic questions, which play an important role in our methodology. We use these demographic questions (which align with the U.S. Census) to weight your survey results, ensuring that your results are representative of your entire community. Your report of results will also contain crosstab comparisons that allow you to view survey results by different demographic breakdowns; this can provide valuable information about how residents’ experiences and opinions may differ based on their age, gender, income level, race/ethnicity, and other demographic characteristics. For these reasons, we can’t edit or fully remove demographic questions without impacting the larger survey process and end result.
If a survey participant is uncomfortable with providing this kind of personal information, please first reassure them that this data is kept confidential, and they won’t be individually identified by their responses. The results will show responses grouped into larger, aggregated demographic categories (e.g., ages 18-35, 36-55, and 55+). In addition, sharing this demographic information can actually benefit residents in the long run, because it will enable local leaders to better understand residents’ experiences and identify any demographic groups that can be better served in certain ways. For example, imagine that overall survey results indicate that 70% of residents feel safe in the community, but 30% don't. If the 70% who feel safe (and the 30% who don't) are spread evenly across all demographics, then it's a general issue impacting all residents equally; however, if the 70% of people who feel safe are all younger or middle-aged (18-55), and the 30% of people who feel unsafe are all older adults (55+), that's a different situation with a different set of solutions. As such, demographic information is critical to understanding the issues and making the most informed decisions.
While this demographic information is valuable, all questions on these surveys are entirely voluntary. If respondents are still unsure about providing this information, please let them know that you value their input and they can skip any questions that they prefer not to answer. We would all rather see residents submit a response missing some demographic information than not share their input at all!