What is the Community Views survey?

The Community Views survey is the place-based community sentiment survey behind the results you see on your organisation's Community Views platform. Its purpose is to better understand the local needs and priorities of communities. Designed and run by .id in collaboration with the organisation that commissions the survey, it asks residents about their priorities, needs and experiences of their local area, alongside other topics that help build a broader picture of the community.

The survey is designed to provide a sufficiently large, diverse and balanced evidence base to support place-based planning and decision-making. This article explains what the survey covers, how respondents are recruited and how the results are prepared for analysis.

Key concepts

The Community Views survey

The Community Views survey combines a set of standard questions with custom questions tailored to your organisation.

Standard questions cover topics including what residents value about their local area and how they experience those things, local issues and priorities, health and wellbeing, financial circumstances, climate change and demographic characteristics. The survey also includes open-ended questions, giving respondents an opportunity to describe what they value about their local area and what they believe could improve quality of life.

Your organisation can also include custom questions to explore issues or topics that are particularly relevant to your community.

Community Views and Living in Australia

These are two separate surveys. Community Views is the survey of your local community, commissioned by your organisation.

Living in Australia is .id's independently run national benchmark survey, run once a year around April with a sample of about 5,000 Australians. When you compare your results against national, state or regional benchmarks on the Community Views platform, the comparison draws on results captured through the Living in Australia survey. Your own results always come from your organisation’s Community Views survey, which is designed to better understand your local community.

Sampling: how many residents are surveyed

Before your organisation’s Community Views survey runs, .id works with your organisation to determine a feasible sample, including local area sample goals. Sample goals are designed around the local areas or groupings of suburbs your organisation wants to represent.

A minimum sample goal is set for each local area so there are enough responses to support reliable analysis and place-based decision-making at that level, not just for the overall study area. For example, if an organisation has five local areas it wants to represent, a minimum of 200 responses in each might be recommended, resulting in an overall minimum sample of 1,000.

The size of the estimated resident population is also considered when setting sample goals to ensure the target is feasible for each area.

Recruitment: how residents are invited to participate

Respondents are recruited through .id’s social media advertising methodology. This includes targeted social media advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Recruitment can also be conducted through your organisation's own channels if it chooses to use them. Recruitment is designed to reach residents across the community with different demographic characteristics, rather than relying only on people who are already engaged with your organisation.

The composition of the responding sample is monitored during the survey fieldwork period to help identify groups or areas that may be over- or under-represented. This allows recruitment strategies to be adjusted over the course of fieldwork to help ensure the survey sample reflects the adult population of the target area as closely as possible.

Weighting: aligning results with the population

Survey responses are typically weighted by age, gender and local area, although the exact approach is determined on a case-by-case basis for each study.

Weighting targets are based on ABS adult population data for the geographic area covered by the survey. Weighting adjusts the influence of different groups in the sample so that groups who are over-represented or under-represented do not have disproportionate influence on the overall results.

Building a reliable and balanced sample

You don't need to survey everybody in a community to obtain a reliable picture of its views. Once a sample reaches a reasonable size, reliability depends much more on the size and composition of the sample than on the proportion of the total population that participated.

Sample size, however, is only part of the picture. Like most community engagement, Community Views involves an element of self-selection because people ultimately choose whether or not to participate. A large number of responses therefore does not automatically mean that a sample adequately reflects the broader community.

The Community Views methodology is designed to reduce this risk through broad recruitment, monitoring the composition of the responding sample, weighting where required, and analysing results across geographic and demographic groups. Together, these approaches help build a sufficiently large, diverse and balanced evidence base for understanding the priorities, experiences and differences that exist across the community.

No community survey can completely eliminate non-response or self-selection bias. Community Views therefore does not assume that every resident holds exactly the same views as survey respondents. Instead, the aim is to capture the community broadly enough, and with enough responses, to draw robust conclusions about the priorities and experiences of the community.

Where the survey results appear in the Community Views platform

Results from your Community Views survey are published on your organisation's Community Views platform. Results are organised into topic tiles and presented through charts and, for open-ended questions, written responses.

Where available, results can be explored by characteristics such as local area, age group and gender and compared with relevant national, state and regional benchmarks. Where your organisation has completed more than one Community Views survey, previous survey waves can also be used to understand how results have changed over time.

Each survey wave provides a snapshot of community views and experiences at the time the survey was conducted.

Frequently asked questions

Q: What's the difference between Community Views and Living in Australia?

A: Community Views is the survey conducted for your organisation and provides your community's results. Living in Australia is .id's separate annual national benchmark survey of around 5,000 Australians, which provides the national, state and regional benchmarks available in Community Views. They are separate surveys and should not be treated as one.

Q: How do you decide how many people to survey?

A: .id works with your organisation to set minimum sample goals for the local areas it wants to represent. The aim is to achieve enough responses to support reliable analysis and place-based decision-making at that level. The estimated resident population is also considered to ensure the target is feasible for each area.

Q: How are residents recruited?

A: Respondents are recruited through targeted social media advertising on Facebook and Instagram, as well as through your organisation's own channels where these are used. Recruitment is designed to reach residents across different locations and demographic groups.

Q: Are the results weighted?

A: Typically yes - by age, gender and local area, with targets based on ABS adult population data for the study area. The exact weighting approach is determined on a case-by-case basis for each study.

Q: How current are the results I'm looking at?

A: Each survey wave provides a snapshot of community views and experiences at the time the survey was conducted. Where your organisation has completed multiple Community Views surveys, previous waves can also be used to explore how results have changed over time.