Here are some of the best questions for a citizen survey about air quality concerns, plus tips on crafting them. If you want to build such a survey instantly, you can generate a full survey with Specific in seconds.
What are the best open-ended questions for a citizen survey about air quality concerns?
Open-ended questions let people share their honest opinions and lived experiences in their own words. They’re ideal for uncovering real stories, unique perspectives, and unexpected challenges that closed-ended questions often miss—especially when talking about topics like air quality, where experiences and concerns can be deeply personal and varied.
How would you describe the air quality in your area?
Have you or your family experienced any health issues you believe are related to air pollution?
What specific sources of air pollution concern you most in your community?
When do you notice air quality is at its worst, and how does it affect your daily life?
What changes have you made, if any, due to concerns about air quality?
What information or resources would help you better understand and mitigate air pollution risks?
How satisfied are you with your local government’s efforts to address air quality issues?
Can you describe a time when poor air quality impacted an activity or plan you had?
What actions would you like to see from local businesses or organizations to improve air quality?
Is there anything else you'd like to share about air quality in your area?
For context, studies show 65% of people in Portugal feel uninformed about their local air quality[1]—proving open-ended questions can help surface unmet informational needs in your area, too.
What are the best single-select multiple-choice questions for a citizen survey about air quality concerns?
Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect if you want to quantify results or ease respondents into the conversation—sometimes picking from a short list is less intimidating. They also help spot trends fast, and can guide follow-up inquiries for richer feedback.
Question: How would you rate the air quality in your area right now?
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
Very poor
Question: Which location bothers you most when it comes to air pollution?
My home
My workplace/school
Parks and recreational areas
Main roads or traffic hotspots
Other
Question: What do you believe is the main source of air pollution in your community?
Vehicle emissions
Industrial activities
Construction/dust
Burning of waste
Other
When to follow up with "why?" You should add a follow-up "why?" after a respondent picks a choice that could have deeper meaning. For example, if a citizen picks "Poor" for air quality, a good follow-up might be: "Can you share why you rated it this way?" This turns a quick response into a meaningful conversation.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Adding "Other" lets you uncover new sources of concern you might not have considered. By following up with, "Please explain," you can reveal unexpected insights and adapt your strategy based on real-world feedback.
NPS-survey-type question for citizen survey about air quality concerns
NPS (Net Promoter Score) isn’t just for businesses. In air quality surveys, it helps gauge citizens’ willingness to recommend their city’s air quality—or lack thereof. It’s a simple, powerful indicator of overall satisfaction and trust. Imagine asking, "On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend your area’s air quality to someone considering moving here?" The resulting feedback can be eye-opening, especially when paired with follow-up questions to dig into why.
Get started with an NPS survey for citizens about air quality concerns in minutes.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are where an average survey becomes a real conversation. Specific’s automated follow-up questions feature makes it effortless—AI asks probing, contextual questions in real time, just like an expert would in a live interview. This ensures you get all the rich detail you need with minimal back-and-forth.
Citizen: "I think air quality is worse during the summer."
AI follow-up: "Can you tell me what you’ve noticed that makes you feel that way in the summer months?"
If you skipped follow-ups, you’d never know if they’re referring to heat waves, seasonal construction, or increased car use.
How many followups to ask? In most cases, two to three follow-up questions are enough to dig into the topic without overwhelming your respondents. Specific lets you fine-tune this, and even set it to skip ahead if the key insight is captured early.
This makes it a conversational survey: Follow-ups make every response part of a dialogue, not just a form. That’s what we call a conversational survey.
AI-powered analysis: Even with lots of open-text responses, it’s easy to analyze all replies using AI. See how it works in our AI survey response analysis guide.
These automated follow-up questions are a big leap forward—if you want to see them in action, just generate a survey and try it yourself.
How to compose a prompt for ChatGPT (or other GPTs) to create citizen survey questions
ChatGPT and similar AIs work best when you give clear instructions. For example, try starting with:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for citizen survey about air quality concerns.
But why stop there? You get far better results if you provide more context—about who you are, what you’re aiming for, or who your audience is. For instance:
I'm a city official creating a conversational survey to understand citizens’ daily experiences regarding air quality. Please suggest 10 open-ended and 5 single-select multiple-choice questions, focusing on everyday challenges, health impacts, and suggestions for improvement.
After your initial questions, you can prompt AI to help structure your survey. Try:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Now, if you want to further deep dive, you might say:
Generate 10 questions for categories ‘Health impacts’ and ‘Community actions’.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey is exactly what it sounds like—questions are delivered by AI in a friendly, back-and-forth chat instead of a static form. The advantage? People engage more deeply and often give longer, more thoughtful responses. The AI can probe, clarify, and adapt in real time.
Let’s compare manual survey creation and AI-driven survey generation:
Manual Survey | AI-Generated Survey |
|---|---|
Tedious, time-intensive setup | Quick to launch; instant generation |
Generic, rigid question sets | Tailored, context-savvy questions |
No real-time conversation | Dynamic follow-ups and clarifications |
Manual analysis needed | AI-powered insights, summaries |
Curious how to make a conversational survey? Check out this guide to creating air quality citizen surveys.
Why use AI for citizen surveys? AI turbocharges the process: you launch in minutes, gather richer feedback (with less effort), and analyze results instantly. It’s especially valuable for hot topics like air quality—where more than three-quarters of Hong Kong residents, for example, see it as a grave issue, but few take protective action[2]. An AI survey example can be created, analyzed, and iterated in less time than it takes to draft a single questionnaire by hand.
Specific is built to deliver the best possible experience for both survey creators and respondents, leveraging conversational AI to streamline every aspect of feedback collection and analysis.
See this air quality concerns survey example now
Act now—explore how a fully conversational AI survey for citizen air quality concerns gathers richer, more actionable feedback without the manual effort. Experience smarter surveys and deep insights today.